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LIBRARY-OE CONGRESS. 



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UNITED STATER OF AMERICA. 



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Washington, D. C, Oct. 3d, 1881. 
Gentlemen : 

Of the many lives of the late President (I have 
seen ten or twelve) published during the campaign last 
year, that of Major Bundy may be signalized, as regards 
authenticity and general interest. 

It is within my knowledge that Major Bundy had 
access to a large mass of correspondence and private 
memoranda, which afforded him unusual facilities in the 
preparation of his work — in fact, a labor of love — which, 
in my judgment, was well and faithfully done. 

In making this statement I do not undervalue the 
work of other writers who, with the material at their 
command, tried to illustrate a life which has become a 
sacred memory in the hearts of the American people. 

Very truly yours, 

A. F. Rockwell. 
Messrs. A. S. Barnes & Co. 



THE NATION'S HERO -In Memoriam. 



THE LIFE 



OF 



James Abram Garfield 



Twentieth President of the United States. 



J. M. BUNDY. 



WITH AN account OF THE PRESIDENT'S DEATH 
AND FUNERAL OBSEQUIES. 



o^ ;*^ 



,/^.7-7i,^ 



.H^HC^^' 



NEW YORK: 
A. S. BARNES & CO. 



E4? 



7 



PUBLISHEES' I^OTIGE. 



The life of James A. Garfield to the day of the nomi- 
nation, was prepared by Major J. M. Bundy, Editor of the 
New York Evening Mail, at Mentor, nnder the roof of 
the President, a large portion of it being taken down 
verbatim from Mr. Garfield's lips. The whole of it was 
submitted to him for approval before publication. It 
had a large sale during the campaign, being endorsed by 
Mr. Garfield and the Republican Committee. 

The part beginning with the election was added by 
the publishers, and is taken from eye-witnesses and 
other contemporary sources. It embraces a full history 
of the causes leading to the assassination, of the crime 
itself, and of the President's lingering death and funeral 
obsequies. It was the first memoir in the hands of the 
people, and it is believed to be worthy of a permanent 
place in every library. 



Copyrif]rht, 1880, 1881, A. S. BARNES & CO. 



COXTEjSTTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

PA6E 

Garfield's Noble Ancestry 1 

CHAPEER II. 
" Four Young Saplings " in the Woods of Orange , 8 

CHAPTER III. 
At Geauga Seminary ^^ 

CHAPTER IV. 
Garfield at Hiram 23 

CHAPTER V. 
Garfield at Williams 31 

CHAPTER VI. 
Professor, President, and State Senator 45 

CHAPTER VII. 
Garfield, the Citizen Soldier 53 

CHAPTER VIII. 
Garfield in Congress ^'^ 

CHAPTER IX. 
The Currency Question '^^ 

CHAPTER X. 
Garfield and the Tariff 103 

CHAPTER XI. 
Committee Work 1^1 



iT COi^TENTS. 

FAOB 

CHAPTER XII. 
The Extra Session of 1879 135 

CHAPTER XIII. 
The Louisiana Count and Other Matters 156 

CHAPTER XIV. 
Occasional Speeches 161 

CHAPTER XV. 
Garfield's Career as a Lawyer 170 

CHAPTER XVL 
Education 187 

CHAPTER XVIL 
Civil Service Reform 193 

CHAPTER XVIII. 
By way of Review 198 

CHAPTER XIX. 
Home Life at Washington and Mentor 217 

CHAPTER XX, 
Conclusion 228 

CHAPTER XXI. 
President Garfield 233 

CHAPTER XXII. 
Final Honors 248 

APPENDIX. 

Garfield's Chicago Convention Speech 264 

Garfield's Informal Acceptance 267 

Garfield in the Light of Phrenology 268 

President Arthur's Inaugural Address 270 

President Artliur's First Proclamation 272 

How Mother Garfield bore the Afiiiction 273 



THE LIFE 



GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD 



CHAPTER I. 
Garfield's noble ancestry. 

" In this world all is relative. Character itself is the result of innuraerablo 
influences, from without and from within, which act unceasingly through life. 
Who shall estimate the effect of those latent forces enfolded in the spirit of a 
new-born child — forces that may date back centuries and find their origin in the 
life and thought and deeds of remote ancestors— forces, the germs of which, en- 
veloped in the awful mystery of life, have been transmitted silently from gener- 
ation to generation, and never perish I All-cherishing nature, provident and 
nnforgetting, gathers up all these fragments, that nothing may be lost, but that 
all may ultimately reappear in new combinations. Each new life is thus the 
* heir ol all the ages,' the possessor of qualities which only the events of life can 
nnf old.""— Garjield'8 Bulogy on General George II. Thomas. 

James Abraham Garfield is the natural and worthy heir of 
a noble lineage. It is true that his ancestors, so far as traceable, 
have been people of moderate, and generally lowly, position 
and circumstances. Their names have not been found in Court 
Chronicles or books of the Peerage, across the water ; nor have 
they, with a few exceptions, figured conspicuously in American 
records, fleeting or permanent. But if virtue, courage, adven- 
turousness of spirit, independence, and loyalty to God, truth, 
and country, constitute nobility of character, and prove nobility 
of blood, the men and women whose strong characteristics have 
descended to the greatest of the Gaifields were people of a 



2 THE LIFE OF GEl!f. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

♦' rare strain of blood," to use the expressive language of the 
turf, where only actual qualities of race are considered. There 
is nothing " lucky" or " accidental " about either the charac- 
ter or the career of the next President of the United States. 
The most wonderfully developed specimen of American man- 
hood in this country has come to his present commanding posi- 
tion as legitimately, by the help of as favorable influences, and 
by virtue of as inexorable laws, as the big pines of the Yo- 
semite. 

Let us look into this as far and as clearly as dim or scanty 
records and traditions will enable us to see. 

It is tolerably certain that the male ancestor of the American 
Garfields was one of that picked company of men, women, and 
children, who came over in the ship which bore Governor Win- 
throp to the Massachusetts shores, and it is absolutely certain 
that this ancestor, Edward Garfield, was one of the one hun- 
dred and six proprietors of Watertown, now a lovely suburb of 
Boston, for he is so recorded in 1635. It is undoubtedly true 
—for all the circumstances prove it — that Edward Garfield was 
one of those men whose religion was so heroic and practical that 
they coolly and patiently encountered the dangers and priva- 
tions and sufferings that would have appalled nine tenths of 
Norman William's adventurous, freebooting founders of the 
nobility of conquered England, and with notions as much 
higher than those of the Norman robbers as the heavens are 
higher than the earth. But in Massachusetts, in the seven- 
teenth century, a quiet and sustained heroism was so common 
that individual heroes rarely got special mention. So, all that 
is known of Edward Garfield is that he lived to be ninety-seven 
years old, thereby, according to Carlyle's maxim, showing much 
virtue, and setting an example to his descendants which has 
been well observed. 

Going backward from Edward Garfield, authentic history 
finds little to stand on, in the pursuit of his ancestry, and 
speculation has been wild and vague. There is a controversy as 
to whether the Garfields wxre of Saxon origin, coming over 



THE LIFE OF GEN". JAMES A. GARFIELD. 3 

from Germany to England, or whether they are pure "Welsh. 
General Garfield himself is a strong evidence of the former 
theory. When he talks German, as he does fluently and well, 
no stranger would doubt his being a piire-blooded German. 
He has the fair Saxon complexion and the Saxon temperament 
and physique. But this is not conclusive, though strongly pre- 
sumptive. Among the few ancestral facts, however, that are 
on record in England, are those found in the " Herald's Visita- 
tion to Middlesex, " about the middle of the seventeenth century, 
in which are recorded the family arms and crest of the Gar^ 
fields of Middlesex, one of whom had the name of Abraham, 
which has kept reappearing in the family in this country, though 
sometimes shortened to Abram. This Middlesex settlement of 
the Garfields is pretty strong confirmation of the theory of their 
Saxon origin. 

Returning to Edward Garfield, he had a son Edward, who 
had a son Benjamin, who had a son Thomas. Benjamin showed 
the warlike spirit that has been natural to the race, as well as 
civil ability. He was a captain in the Indian wars and a repre- 
sentative from Watertown, in the " Great and General Court of 
Massachusetts," probably a big-hearted and big-brained man. 
Doubtless more of this stock were of the same sort, though 
recordless. At all events, five generations of the Garfields, in- 
cluding the first Edward, are buried in and around Watertown. 
" Their record is on high." 

The sixth Garfield in line of descent was Solomon, the 
great-grandfather of General Garfield, of whom more presently. 
His brother Abraham had his chance to show Garfield blood, 
by risking the loss of it in the fight at Concord Bridge, which 
was the Sumter tocsin of our Revolutionary ancestors, and 
afterward was one of the signers of the curiously framed but 
tremendously suggestive affidavits sent to the Continental 
Congress, to prove that these cool-blooded heroes acted on the 
defensive. Of Abraham Garfield we hear no more. Solomon 
Garfield was, however, destined to make history. As one of the 
self-crowned " sovereigns" who wanted to carve his sover- 



4 THE LIFE OF GEK. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

eignty out of the then wild and " "Western" forest beyond 
the Hudson, he " moved " with his family into what was then 
known as " The Wilderness" of New York, and helped to 
** settle" what is now known as tlie town of Worcester, in this 
State. This was as heroic and manhood-develoj)ing a business 
as killing Indians or fighting " red-coats." 

Solomon had there in his " clearing" a son named Thomas, 
from whom and his wife, Asenath Hill, was begotten, in De- 
cember, 1799,Abram, or Abraham, Garfield, the father of General 
Garfield. The father spelled his Christian name sometimes in 
one way and sometimes in the other. He never disgraced 
either phase of that patriarch.il name. So much for the male 
line of the family. 

The ascent through the lineage of General Garfield's heroic 
mother, Eliza Garfield, will show an equally noble " strain of 
blood " and greater distinction. Eliza Ballon, as she was be- 
fore she married Abram, or Abraham, Garfield, came of that 
purest, highest, most intelligent and enduring race of involun- 
tary colonists who were ever expelled for their religion from 
France — the Huguenot fugitives from the inconceivably foolish 
" Edict of Nanles," It seems as though God had determined 
that the Old World should send to America the very choicest of 
seed for the propagation of a nation. Among these Huguenot 
" settlers" was Maturin Ballon, the founder of the American 
family of Ballous. Coming here for religious liberty, he and 
his associates were naturally drawn to Rhode Island, the home 
of the man who had made the greatest pronunciamento of 
religious liberty up to that time — Roger Williams. Maturin 
Ballou " settled " in Woonsocket, in Rhode Island, and he and 
his descendants, for several generations, enjoyed there to per- 
fection the liberty they crossed the seas to find. James Bal- 
lon, the father of General Garfield's mother, also enjoyed the 
bold and adventurous spirit of his race, being taken up. as a boy 
fnto the wilderness of New Hampshire, where his father cut out 
for his family a home in the forest, in Richmond, just north of 
the Massachusetts line. By marriage in New Hampshire this 



THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 5 

branch of the Ballous became "connected" with the large 
Ingalls family, of which General Rufus Ingalls is an able repre- 
sentative. From James Ballon and Mehitabel Ingalls was 
born Eliza Ballon, General Garfield's mother. 

She was born in Richmond, Chester County, New Hamp- 
shire, on the 21st of September, 1801, in the same town where 
Hosea Ballon, the founder of Universalism in this country, and 
a relative, was born. The Ballous, according to all traditions, 
have been small in stature, and have been called a " French 
pony breed "—which means compactness and toughness of fibre, 
moral, intellectual, and physical ; great nervous energy, com- 
bined with endurance, and a fine texture of organization 
throughout. Eloquence and the gift of poetry came naturally 
to the family. Silas Ballon, a brother of General Garfield's 
grandfather James, was the author of over a score of hymns in 
the Universalist " collection" of his time. It will be seen that 
the General came honestly by his oratorical powers, imagination, 
and finer sentiments, from his mother's side of the family. Mobile 
he inherits the great physical development and strength, and 
the accompanying good-nature, generosity, and sense of humor 
that have characterized the Garfields. General Garfield's 
father was a man of prodigious strength. He was famous as a 
wrestler, and never met his match, though men would come for 
miles from all around to wrestle with " Abe Garfield," as they 
called him. His grandfather, Solomon Garfield, was offered a 
grindstone weighing five hundred pounds if he would carry it 
home. He put it on his shoulders and carried it home, a mile's 
distance, without even availing himself of the privilege of lean- 
ing against a fence. This feat was performed in Worcester, 
N. Y., and while I was at Mentor a Worcester born man called 
who gave the tradition as being fresh to this day. All other 
stories about the Garfields confirm the accepted theory that they 
have been distinguished for their physical strength and for 
their generosity, warm-heartedness, and dashing courage, but 
without much tendency to intellectual feats. General Garfield 
believes that he is the second Garfield who ever graduated from 



6 THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

a college. The dynamic forces that were to take him out of 
the range of all previous Garfields lay coiled up in the fine, 
sensitive, religious, intellectual nature of his mother, who was 
most fortunately situated for the development of whatever was 
purest, best, and noblest in her, and prepared for the great mis- 
sion she was to fulfil — a mission which she is far from believ- 
ing to be ended. 

When Eliza Garfield was eight years old, in the wild New 
Hampshire " clearing," her father died, and her mother taught 
her a lesson of heroic faith and vigor by taking the four little 
children and moving into the newly settled community at 
Worcester, New York, where Heaven had ordained that the 
destinies of the Garfields and Ballous should form a junction. 
Among her playmates for five years was Abram Garfield, her 
future lover and husband. But her eldest brother James, after 
whom the General was named, had had his ideas enlarged and 
his adventurous spirit quickened by service in the war of 1813, 
and so, when the war closed, he was wild with the notion of 
moving to " the new West," as forest-covered Ohio was then 
called. He induced his mother to take her children there, and 
they all M^ent fearlessly out, to conquer a new home. It was in 
1814, and their destination was Muskingum County, near 
Zanesville, in Central Ohio. The tedious journey took six long 
weeks. 

Now for Abram Garfield, an orphan, and bereft of the little 
Ballou girl, his playmate. He was " bound out " to service with 
a Mr. James Stone, who brought him up, but he broke his fet- 
ters at eighteen, and, keeping the Ballou girl in his heart all the 
while, he set out for the Ohio wilderness, found his " better 
half," and made her legally such by proper ceremony, when he 
was nineteen and she a year younger. The building of the Ohio 
Canal by the State gave a fine chance for the enterprising young 
giant, whose will power, energy, and decision were as strong as 
his tremendous muscles. A born master of men, "smart," 
active, and keen-witted, he found a place as superintendent on 
the canal work, and soon got to taking contracts, which for 



THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 7 

some time were profitable. A sudden rise of prices broke him, 
but he paid in full, and struck out for the wilderness of Orange, 
fifteen miles from Mentor, taking a half-brother with him. 
There was but one house within seven miles of them. They 
erected a log-cabin and both lived in it until another was built, 
and then wJnt to work to cut a hole in the forest. There, on 
the 19th of November, 1831, James A. Garfield, the youngest of 
four children, was born. 



CHAPTER n. 

**FOUR YOUNG SAPLINGS" IN THE WOODS OF ORANGE. 

Judged by mere outward appearances, the advent of this 
robust, big-eyed, Saxon man-child, in a little log-cabin, in a 
small hole in the dense forest of Orange, Ohio, was not a par- 
ticularly fortunate entrance into the world. But if my readers 
have sympathized with the views briefly outlined in the pre- 




EIRTHl'LACE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



ceding chapter, they will agree with me that such a birth, 
amid precisely such surroundings, was of great good omen to 
the child, who was to bear all the burdens and sorrows and 
struggles of that hand-to-hand fight for existence and develop- 
ment which is the blessed fate of nine tenths of the boys and 
men who make the Republic what it is. But this is only a 



THE LIFE OF GE]Sr. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 9 

negative view. Positively, the being born of such a father and 
such a mother, in the Orange woods, at that time, was a most 
auspicious ordering of destiny. Not only was the daily fight 
for a living heroically and joyously borne by the father, but 
with religious cheerfulness by the mother. The whole atmos- 
phere of life in that little " clearing" was pure, noble, and in- 
sj^iring. 

But when the bright young boy was but eighteen months old 
this little home of happy labor and hope was darkened by a 
sudden, unexpected, and, in fact, needless, calamity, which 
seemed to cloud all its future. A fire broke out in the woods, 
which was approaching Abram GarfiekVs " clearing," near his 
wheat. With all his tremendous physical energy he fought 
that fire all day long, by ditching, clearing away the leaves,. 
or other methods. By doing the work of ten ordinary men he 
saved his crop and diverted the fire. He came in at night, 
heated and exhausted, and got suddenly chilled. For a day or 
two he suffered intensely, when a quack doctor came along and 
said, " You are in danger, Garfield," and put a blister around 
his throat, which drew every particle of inflammation in his body 
into Garfield's throat, and the glorious man choked to death at 
thirty-three, in the fulness of his magnificent strength. lie had 
fought fire like a Viking. He died like one. Immediately 
before his death he got up and walked across the room, looked 
out at his oxen and called them by name, went back and sat 
down on the bed, and said, "Eliza, I have brought you four 
young saplings into these woods. Take care of them." And 
he died, sitting up against the head of his bed. That is the 
sort of stock that James A. Garfield comes from. But events 
were to prove that the Ballou stock was of a sort even more 
heroic, because of a finer and higher " strain." 

Widow Garfield's situation and that of her " four saplings" 
seemed well nigh hopeless to the neighbors. Not so to her, 
however. Her mother had taken four fatherless children out 
into the wilderness of New York. She would maintain for her 
four children what the giant force of her husband had cut out 



10 THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

of the Orange woods. She would not " put her children out," 
as the neighbors insisted. No one else should raise that brood 
but herself. She was entitled by law to $120, as a "year's 
support," which she could hold as against any creditor. 
But even in her desperate situation she scorned to take this 
entirely just advantage. She paid off all the debts, sold fifty 
acres of land, which was mortgaged for purchase-money, and 
saved thirty acres on which to support herself and her children. 
Thus she began to wrestle with life, with four children to take 
care of — Mehitabel, aged eleven ; Thomas, a boy of nine years ; 
Mary, seven years old ; and James, then, as I have said, eigh- 
teen months old. 

Only those who have lived in new settlements can comprehend 
how the Widow Garfield got along. A few incidents, out of a 
multitude, must illustrate. Abram Garfield had "got in" a 
good crop of wheat, all secured by fences except about a hun- 
dred rails. There were, in readiness for splitting into rails, 
great chestnut " cuts," and a few days after the funeral Widow 
Garfield took her son Thomas out to the pile of " cuts" and 
with his help split the needed rails herself — the plucky little 
woman. She was a first-rate seamstress, and w^ould go to the 
shoemaker's and make clothes for his children, while he, in 
return, would make shoes for her children. By the time that 
Thomas got to be a lad of ten or twelve he was able to ride a 
horse to plough corn, and earned twenty or twenty-five cents a 
day, paid in wheat or any other " produce." He was a true 
" father's boy," and seemed inspired with an idea of self-sacri- 
ficing labor, that gave him almost the spirit of a mature man 
and the sense of responsibility for the support of the family. 
The sisters also were helpful, in all ways. The widow had a 
few sheep. She and her daughters carded the wool, wove the 
cloth, and made all the garments that could be made of wool. 
So, in all sort of ways the busy little household managed not 
only to exist, but to live well, as they thought. 

But this did not satisfy the Widow Garfield. She wanted 
mental and spiritual nurture for her children ; so, when a log 



THE LIFE OF GEN". JAMES A. GARFIELD. 11 

school -house was to be put up she tendered a little corner of her 
farm for a site, and so got what she desired within easy dis- 
tance for young James, who, at the early age of three, went to 
school in that little log hut, not because he was sent, but be- 
cause of his own longings. At the end of the first term he 
received a New Testament as a prize for being the best reader in 
his class of little boys. The school-house was plain and rough 
enough. The scholars sat on split logs, hewed a little on the 
top, four pegs put on the round side and supporting the benches. 
At first the teacher was very ordinary, but Eastern school- 
masters or " school-ma'ams" came along and did better. Little 
James went to school summers and winters, loving all his 
studies, and working hard. Text-books were few and of all 
sorts, but faithfully learned, which was the main thing. James, 
for instance, whose prodigious memory developed early, learned 
Webster's spelling-book almost by heart by the time he was 
eight years old. In fact, up to that time the main things he 
had learned were reading, spelling and writing — learning the 
language at the natural period for learning it. 

Even when James, with his rapid growth, at the age of ten, 
had become able to work, his fatherly brother Thomas insisted 
on the former going to school. The mother, with her intense 
New England spirit, was, of course, glad to see James " getting 
along in his books " as rapidly as possible. In fact, the feel-? 
ing of the whole family seemed to be, "Whatever else hap- 
pens, James must go to school ;" and as for James, it is the 
common local tradition that even if he knew that study would 
never prove useful to him he would have pursued it for the 
love of it. In fact, he was seeking in all directions for books 
to read. Of course there were few to be had in the scattered 
homes of Orange, but these he got at and devoured. The old 
*' English Reader" filled him with delight, and he can now 
quote from it, from memory, by the page. 

Simultaneously with this tropical growth of intellect, under 
circumstances not so unfavorable as might be thought, was the 
growth of religious faith and sensibilities, under the teaching, 



12 THE LIFE OF GEX. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

influence, and direction of his mother, who was what is called 
a " Campbellite." And this requires a brief digression. It is 
not creditable to the people of other sects that they know so 
little of the real character of the class of Christians known as 
" Disciples," who number nearly three quarters of a million of 
good people, principally in Ohio, Indiana and the South, and 
are called " Campbellites. " They arc mostly plain and unedu- 
cated people, but their creed is one to which other Christians 
seem quite generally tending. Briefly, it is merely a protest 
against imposing, as a condition of church membership, any 
human formula of divine truth. The belief in the New Testa- 
ment and in the divine character of Christ and his atonement, 
and in immersion as the proper mode of baptism, is all there is 
of the so-called " Campbellite" faith. In practice they are 
very simple and apostolic. Laymen can preach, and preaching 
is not regarded as an isolated and peculiar profession. As for 
Alexander Campbell, the founder of this sect — for it is as secta- 
rian as any "denomination," and bigoted on the subject of 
baptism — he was one of the few recent great "Fathers of the 
Church" who have left their impress on vast numbers of people. 
A prodigy of learning and polemical power ; distinguished for 
the rare combination of a subtle metaphysical brain with keen 
practicality which seems peculiar to the Scottish thinkers ; 
bold, independent, and masterly in all ways— his grip on his 
large army of followers is as strong as Theodore Parker once 
said that of Calvin was on New England orthodoxy. But it is 
rot " a cold clutch." It is that of a beloved and full-blooded 
master. The influence of this grand and powerful nature on Gar- 
field's early career was strong and educational. It began when he 
was very young, coming first through his mother, who, with her 
husband, had been converted to the " Disciples" faith shortly 
before James was born— converted by the preaching of a man 
named Bentley, who had built a mill and a store two or three 
miles from the Garfield homestead. He preached all through 
that country, and kept his business going all the time. There 
was something very primitive, plain, ])Owerful, and convincing 



THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GAKFIELD. 13 

about the utterances of these unordained " Campbellite" 
preachers. 

The Widow Garfield was a great Bible reader, and taught her 
children to read it. She regularly walked to her " Disciples" 
meeting-house, three miles away, every Sunday for years, and 
took the children with her. Later a church was organized in 
the little school-house on her land. In all ways she impressed 
religious truth on her children, and kept them not only from 
bad habits but from bad thoughts. Anything that approached 
impurity of life and speech, in any degree, was hateful to her 
beyond expression. In that household there was a sort of flam- 
ing sword swinging constantly against all forms of indecency 
and immorality. Yet the Widow Garfield was the farthest 
possible from what might be called the sanctimoniousness of 
religion. She did not bring any of its forbidding aspects into 
the family. She was not merely a cheerful, but a jolly woman, 
a woman of great " heartiness," an exquisite singer, and had a 
memory almost marvellous. It is General Garfield's belief that 
she could have sung for forty-eight hours consecutively, from 
her large repertory, if her strength could have held out that 
long. She knew an infinite variety of songs — hymns, ballads, 
and the war-songs of 1812, such as those describing the fight of 
the Guerriere and the Wasp and Hornet, and all those naval 
engagements. Whenever the children were depressed or dull 
she would sing and fill their hearts with vigor and cheer. She 
was full of life and of a clieerful and robust morality that knew 
no taint. 

But to return to James, who kept on going to school and de- 
vouring what story-books he could pick up. He and his cousin, 
Harriet Boynton, read " Robinson Crusoe" over and over again. 
He read and mastered " Josephus" when he was about twelve, 
and was wild over a story of the adventures of a man travelling 
down the Mississippi. When he was about fourteen he read 
Goodrich's " History of the United States," and so thoroughly 
were all its facts impressed on his plastic mind that he can now 
quote freely its statistics of the American and British losses in 



14 THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

most of the battles recorded. Having so few books, the study 
of them was intensified. Even a so-called poetical " History of 
the United States," by a fellow named Eggleston, was commit- 
ted to memory. But the exciting romance of " Jack Hal- 
yard " set the boy's imagination on fire and enkindled the pas-' 
sion for the sea that was to be worked out on the tow-path of 
a canal, and the story of " Alonzo and Melissa'' captivated his 




GARFIELD AT 14 YEARS (FROM A MINIATURE). 

imagination. Most of this reading was done at night, afte\ 
his mother had retired, and with her permission. 

But all this did not interfere with rapid and thorough work 
in school. By the time James was fourteen he had completed 
Pike's Arithmetic and got into Kirkham's Grammar. Then 
came Denham's Arithmetic, which he mastered, and about that 
time he began " declamations" at school. All this while, too, 



THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 15 

hs made himself useful at home, not only by doing " chores," 
but by work on the farm of all sorts, including mowing. At 
fifteen he was a large boy, strong and athletic, inspired, too, by 
the traditions of his father's wrestling. He was too thoroughly 
good-natured to be quarrelsome, but he had imbibed the notion, 
not that it was a disgrace to be an orphan, but that other boys 
who had fathers and "big brothers" had, somehow, an ad- 
vantage over him and were inclined to " run over" him, and 
every sign of this he resented, and fought instantly and "to 
hurt," no matter against what odds of strength or numbers, 
until he got the name of being " a fighting boy," which was a 
great grief to his mother. 

By the time he was fifteen he had absorbed a large amount of 
peculiar literature. Two sorts of books had a special fascina- 
tion for him— those that had accounts of wars, especially Amer- 
ican, and those that described sea life in any form. About 
that period he began to "workout" away from home, espe- 
cially in summer. When he was fourteen or fifteen he worked 
at boiling "black salts," from the ashes of burned logs. He 
got nine dollars a month and was boarded. Then he worked 
in "haying" a season, and took a two-year-old colt for pay 
money being rarely paid. All he earned went into the com- 
mon stock. It was the pride and joy of all the children to get 
" Mother" something, if they could, but it was not mach that 
she would suffer them to do in this way. She was very simple 
in her tastes and attire, although she always had the " knack" 
of putting on things that would look well. 

In the summer when James was sixteen he worked at haying 
at "full men's rates," a dollar a day, which was the largest 
pay he ever got for his manual labor. When the haying was 
over he went to Newburgh, now a part of Cleveland, and found 
that his father's brother Thomas wanted some wood chopped, 
James took the contract to chop a hundred cords, four-foot 
wood, at twenty-five cents a cord, a formidable undertaking 
for the most resolute boy. He stuck to it manfully until the 
last cord was chopped. He could " put up" readily two cords 



16 THE LIFE OF GEIS". JAMES A. GARFIELD. - ' 

a day, so that he cleared about half a dollar a day, as he was 
boarded. This long and hard job was done near Newburgh, 
on a height whence he could see the fascinating blue waters of 
Lake Erie, and, in his intervals of rest, as he would straighten 
up, he could see that blue segment of the lake, and occasionally 
a steamer, and all his wild notions of seafaring life that the 
books had enkindled set his fancy on fire. His wood-chopping 
seemed dreadfully dull and prosaic, but he had a feeling that 
it was disgraceful to back out of anything he had undertaken, 
and he stuck to his task. 

As soon as it was done, however, he went to Cleveland, bent 
on shipping as a hand before the mast. lie boarded a vessel, 
found some drunken sailors, and a captain who looked a 
drunken beast ; was shocked, and turned away and walked off 
— partly disillusionized, not wholly. He happened to meet a 
cousin whom he knew merely by sight, and who was running a 
canal-boat. The cousin asked him if he did not want to drive 
horses for him. The offer was accepted, for it flashed on young 
Garfield's quick mind that he could make the canal M^ork a 
primary school, the lake the academy, and the ocean the 
college. So began his canal-boat experience, which has been 
sufficiently and in some cases extravagantly exploited. It 
came along naturally, without accident or any merely wild 
notion of adventure, and James went through it rough and 
tumble, like the brave and lusty youth he was, for three 
months, when he got paid ten dollars a month and board. Not 
through any fault of his own, he had several fights, and invari- 
ably came off better than his antagonist. The one feature of this 
singular experience which was of special value to him after- 
ward, was his learning to steer, and something about the navi- 
gation of the Ohio River — an experience that served him in the 
army, when he saved his command in eastern Kentucky from 
starving, by piloting a boat sent for supplies, when no profes- 
sional on hand would undertake the perilous duty. He 
stood at the wheel for forty-four hours out of forty-eight, 
and saved his boat from being wrecked. When he re- 



THE LIFE OF GEI^. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 17 

turned to his command with a load of supplies his men were 
eating their last crackers. Until this time his wise and devoted 
wife was never able to understand why Providence had put her 
James through his canal experience. Then she said — as though 
everything in his life ouglit to have some great significance — 
" I see what your life on the canal meant, now." With which 
wise wifely view all sensible people who realize Garfield's great 
mission will agree. 

Providence having quite other ends for young Garfield to 
achieve than could be accomplished even on the ocean, that had 
been his ultimate conception of an arena for his energies, his 
canal experiment resulted in an attack of fever. He was carried 
home to his mother almost delirious, and there, for five months of 
illness, her wise and long-reaching love began to mould his 
destiny, by gentle and insidious, but holy, craft, to higher 
uses than he had dreamed of. She knew well enough that it 
would not do for her to stand right in front of that strong will 
of his. She did far better. She had no word or look of reproof 
for his having gone off and incurred a serious illness, in gratify- 
ing what she regarded as a foolish and wicked love of adven- 
ture. She was merely the incomparable nurse — quiet, patient, 
loving. As soon as James got able to read she scoured the 
neighborhood for books that would lead his mind into whole- 
some channels. She got a school-teacher by the name of Bates, 
now a prominent preacher, to come over and see him, and the 
teacher would instruct him in the new problems in arithmetic, 
and so occupy his mind. Bates became an intellectual stimulus 
to the sick boy that long winter. The mother had conspired 
with Bates to get him to want to go to the Geauga Seminary, 
not far away, and both worked artfully together to that end. 
Finally, as the opening of the school term drew near, the astute 
mother said, "James, you are not fit to go back to the lake 
now. You health is too much broken. You will break right 
down again. Thornas and I have talked it over, and we have 
raised seventeen dollars, which will be pretty nearly enough to 
pay the necessary money expenses of your going over to Chester 



THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. ID 

to school." She had also arranged with her sister to have two 
of her boys go, so as to have the three " club together" and board 
themselves with the supplies they could take. **But," she 
adroitly added, " if you feel still determined to go on the lake, 
why, go over there to school this year, and by that time I hope 
your health will be restored. Then, if you go to work in haying 
or carpentering'' — for James had already learned the latter in 
building a house for his mother — "you will make enough to 
go in the fall term, and then I think you can teach district 
school ; and, if you want to, you can sail on the lake summers, 
and when the lake is frozen over you can teach school." 

She knew how to guide her young Viking without showing 
her purpose. The idea of earning something and being some- 
body came in on him like a passion, for he had felt bitterly his 
dependence, and all his hard earnings had gone to pay doctors' 
bills, even his colt. Against this penniless dependence his whole 
soul revolted. And so the mother conquered, and the destiny 
of the son, from that date to now, has been rapidly upward. To 
Geauga Seminary he would go, and " Mother" Garfield's heart 
was full of joy. 



CHAPTER III. 



AT GEAUGA SEMINAKY. 



Thus, in the spring of his eighteenth year, March, 1849, 
James and his two cousins, •well provisioned, went ten miles 
over to Chester, to get all they could out of the Geauga Semi- 
nary, an institution founded and supported by the "Free Will 
Baptists." They rented a room with a cook-stove and two beds, 
in a cheap old house, partly tenanted by a i30or widow, who 
contracted to do their cooking and washing at very low rates. 
The academy itself was considerable of an institution for the 
time and place, and was enriched by the possession of a library 
of about one hundred and fifty volumes, which latter fact startled 
and delighted young Garfield. But he soon made another dis- 
covery in the school, the importance of which dawned on him 
only very gradually, and which turned out to be the greatest 
discovery of his life-time. He found there a modest, studious, 
somewhat reserved girl, of about his own age, named Lucretia 
Rudolph. He only met her, however, in recitations, and as 
he felt *' green" and awkward, and she was absorbed mostly in 
her studies, the acquaintance was, for some time, without op- 
portunities or provocations for anything more. 

When the term closed James went to work haying, a*d took 
a job with a carpenter. There was a house to be built in Ches- 
ter, and he got the job of cutting out the siding at two cents 
a board. He went back to the fall term and fought his w^ay 
through to the end of the year, paying all liis expenses, and 
having a few dollars left. He then presented himself for exam- 
ination, to get a certificate to teach school, which he readily 
obtained, and taught his first district school, beginning two 
weeks before he was eighteen. He received twelve dollars a 
month and " boarded around." 



THE LIFE OF GEK. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 21 

He had some tough customers to manage in this school. 
There were several boys in it with more brawn than brains, who 
conceived it to be their chief duty and pleasure to bully the 
schoolmaster. He labored under the special disadvantage of 
teaching in the school district next to where he had been born 
and brought up, and where everybody knew him as " Jim" Gar- 
field, The winter before the teacher had been turned out by 
^the boys — that is, his position was made so hot that he was glad 
to leave. There was constant skirmishing between the " big 
boys" and young Garfield for about a fortnight, until one of 
them flatly refused to obey, and Garfield whipped him. As the 
mutineer was returning to his seat he caught a heavy billet of 
wood, and turned, without Garfield's knowledge, when the 
latter heard a shriek from the scholars, looked around, and saw 
the big club, held in both hands, falling on his head, with 
a force that might well have proved fatal, had not Garfield 
thrown up his arm and warded it off. His arm was nearly 
broken, but with the other he threw the mutineer so that he 
fell on his back ; then jerked him on his feet, seized and threw 
him, put his knee on his breast and hand on his throat, and 
said, " Now, sir, I shall whip you until one of two things 
occurs : either till you die or until you absolutely submit to the 
order." Then he gave the scholar a series of heavy blows until 
he surrendered. And as there were several large boys who 
seemed to be in conspiracy with the flogged ringleader, Gar- 
field added, " If there is any scholar here who expects, at any 
time, to make any sort of disturbance, come on now and settle 
here." The school was quiet and orderly for the rest of the 
winter. It was " Jim" Garfield no longer, but "the master." 

During that winter Garfield did a good deal of reading. 
Pollock's " Course of Time" impressed him very much, and he 
learned it nearly all by heart. It was during that winter that 
he fell under the influence of a "Disciples" preacher who 
held forth in the little school-house. The preacher was a good 
solid old man, the incarnation of good sense, and had something 
about him that touched the voung school-master. For some 



22 THE LIFE OF GEi^. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

years previous the latter had been somewhat "offish" on the 
subject of religion ; felt the irksomeness of its pressure, and 
absented himself from church. A strange feeling came over 
him that this plain old preacher had come to get hold of a life 
that was likely to run to waste. The preacher touched his 
sympathies and moved his heart. He " came out," made a 
profession of religion, and was baptized in the faith of his 
mother. He was then a few months past eighteen. To use the 
General's own language: "Of course, that settled canal, and 
lake, and sea, and everything." A new life, with new thoughts 
and ambitions, dawned on him. He resolved at once that he 
would have the best education that it was in the power of 
work to give. "With this high purpose he went back to Chester 
and began his new life. He remained there during the spring 
and next fall, making four terms at Chester, and taught again 
the next winter, getting $16 a month. 

By that time the institution at Hiram, which M-as the product, 
mainly, of the educational zeal and liberality of the " Disciples," 
was being started, and the fresh enthusiasm it called out drew 
Garfield to it, as, later on, the Republican Party, in its fresh 
enthusiasms, called him to it. 



CHAPTER IV. 

GARFIELD AT HIRAM. 

Hiram, and the institution which has been known under the 
successive names of the "Hiram Eclectic Institute" and 
*' Hiram College," deserves a separate chapter. The spontane- 
ous outgrowth from a community that was exceptionally 
devoted to every attainable means of intellectual and religious 
culture, it also largely owed its inspiration to that great-minded 
teacher and apostle, Alexander Campbell, who was not only an 
educational zealot, but whose original and powerful mind im- 
pressed itself on all his more enlightened followers as no other 
mind, in recent times, that I know of, has impressed itself. 
Hiram, from the beginning, was more a hive of busy, earnest, 
and co-operative workers after knowledge than a mere " insti- 
tute," or " college." To Garfield it offered opportunities and 
incitements to development of both brain and heart such as no 
other place would have given. He could there be both pupil 
and teacher. An atmosphere of wholesome and cheerful relig- 
ious enthusiasm and of pure domestic life pervaded the place. 
There, too, he came to know thoroughly the hard-working and 
proficient student who was to be his wife. 

He had studied Latin two terms — that is, he had gone pain- 
fully through the paradigms of the grammar and the rules, 
which he had mastered, but had not gone into any reading book. 
He had gone through algebra, natural philosophy, and botany, 
and had collected a fine herbarium. He had also pursued 
other studies, including a term of Greek. 

When young Garfield first went to Hiram, he had studied 
Latin grammar so far that he understood the conjugations and 
declensions, but had not learned the construction of sentences. 
He had his option between entering u primary class and going 



24 THE LIFE OF GEK. JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

over the work which he had already done, or of going into 
an advanced class, which would compel him at once to begin 
the translation of Caesar's Commentaries. He chose the more 
difficult task. But when he looked over the first lesson of 
translation, about six lines, he realized for the first time what 
an unknown quantity the work of translation was. But he sat 
down to face this difficulty w ith that quiet, bull-dog tenacity 
and purpose which has so often pulled him through. Imme- 
diately after supper he took a candle and his text-book and 
went up to the recitation room in an upper story, so as to wres- 
tle alone with this new task. He had four room-mates in the 
room which he occupied in the basement. Sitting down inr 
front of a table w^ith his Caesar, he began his attack by getting 
from a glossary the signification of each word. But this did 
not solve the problem. So he wrote out each word on a sepa- 
rate piece of paper, and arranged and rearranged these slips 
very much as he might work any other puzzle. Finding that 
one signification would not answer, he wrote down all the 
various significations of each word, which, of course, increased 
his difficulties in something like a geometrical ratio. But he 
kept sullenly and determinedly at it, and w^orked away hour 
after hour without moving or looking away from his task, 
until, about midnight, it was accomplished. Then for the first 
time he came back to self-consciousness. He found that he did 
not know^ where he was or how he had come there. His candle 
was making its last expiring flickers. But one by one recollec- 
tions of his home, of his journey to Orange, and of his coming 
to Hiram, came back to him, and he then realized that he was 
a student at Hiram, and that he had conquered the most appal- 
ling task of his life. 

It has been said that " there are some women whom to know 
well is a liberal education." The truth of this has been illus- 
trated in the biographies of many great men. It is known by 
every man who has had any considerable acquaintance with men 
of decided force and elevation of character. When this sort of 
" liberal education" comes at the plastic and forming period of 



THE LIFE OF GE^-. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 25 

Ihe life of an ingenuous young man whose nature is receptive 
and impressionable, and whose energies and ambitions are en- 
kindled by the pure tuition of a noble and religious woman, of 
great brains and attainments, the results are such as can be 
attained through no other process. 

It was Garfield's good fortune to have such a w^oman as 
teacher, counsellor, fellow-student, and friend at the most criti- 
cal and forming period of his life. She was so much his senior 
in years, had such elevation and decision of character, and was 
so resolute of purpose to maintain the " maiden widowhood " 
occasioned by the death of her affianced before marriage, that 
the closest intimacy of friendship with young Garfield could not 
be in the slightest degree misunderstood, even by the gossips. 
This woman, Miss Almeda A. Booth, achieved a position in 
the " Western Reserve'' something like that which was held 
by Margaret Fuller in New England, so far as regards multifa- 
riousness of intellectual acquisitions, decision of character, and 
influence over intellectual men. 

The range of her studies and the zeal with which she pursued 
so many branches of knowledge were fully as notable as Marga- 
ret Fuller displayed. The divergence in their paths was favor- 
able to the peace and usefulness of Miss Booth, whose religious 
faith never wavered nor ceased to sustain her, and who found 
happiness in the profession of teacher, to which she consecrated 
her whole life, without reserve, doubts, or weariness. 

A few of the more ambitious and hard-working students at 
Hiram found themselves drawn by this noble teacher into an 
intimacy with Miss Booth which was in the highest degree 
honorable and fruitful of good to both parties. Chief among 
them was Garfield, whose touching and heartfelt tribute to his 
friend of friends — delivered at Hiram College, on the 22d of 
June, 1876, and covering forty pamphlet pages — is a worthy 
memorial, eloquent in the sincerity of its sadness, in its por- 
trayal of a finished career, and in its allusions to his own indebt- 
edness to the departed. The very " dedication" on the front 



26 THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

leaf of the pamphlet tells the whole story so suggestively that I 
give it in full, viz. : 

To the thousands of noble men and women, whose generous 
ambition was awakened, whose early culture was guided, 
and whose lives have been made nobler by the thorough- 
ness of her instruction, by the wisdom of her 
counsel, by the faithfulness of her friendship, 
and the purity of her life, this tribute to 
the memory of 
ALMEDA A. BOOTH 
is affectionately dedicated. 

Garfield came to the "Eclectic," as a student, in the Yale 
Term of 1851. He was then nineteen years of age — large and 
stalwart of form, an athlete in proportions, and consumed by a 
general ambition to learn everything that could be learned. But 
he describes his own appearance, at that time, by the words 
'* pulpy," and " green." In his eulogy on Miss Booth, describ- 
ing his own feelings, he says : 

" I had never seen a Geometry ; and, regarding both teacher 
and class, with a feeling of reverential awe for the intellectual 
height to which they had climbed, I studied their faces so 
closely, that I seem to see them now, as distinctly as I saw them 
then. And it has been my good fortune, since that time, to 
claim them all as intimate friends." 

In the Spring Term of 1852, Garfield and a fellow-student 
were appointed to aid Miss Booth in writing a colloquy for the 
public exercises at the end of the school year. Miss Booth at 
once directed the work, gave all sorts of suggestive hints, criti- 
cised the parts, trained the speakers, and put it on the stage, so 
that its success was marked. Says he, of this work : 

" My admiration of her knowledge and ability was unbound- 
ed. And even now, after the glowing picture painted upon my 
memory in the strong colors of youthful enthusiasm has been 
shaded down by the colder and more sombre tints which a 
quarter of a century has added, I still regard her work on that 
occasion as possessing great merit." 



THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. QABFIELD. 27 

Other dramatic co-operative efforts naturally followed this 
success, and disciplined, enlivened, and cultivated the amateur 
dramatists. In the Fall Term of 1852 3Iiss Booth and Garfield 
were members of a class in Xenophon's Anabasis, but near the 
close of this term both ^Miss Booth and himself became teachers, 
and could only keep up their studies outside of class hours. 
*' In mathematics and the physical sciences," says Garfield's 
eulogy, " I was far behind her ; but we were nearly at the same 
place in Greek and Latin, each having studied it about three 
terms. She had made her home at President Hayden's almost 
from the first, and I became a member of his family at the begin- 
ning of the "Winter Term of 1852-3. Thereafter, for nearly two 
years, she and I studied together and recited in the same classes 
(frequently without other associates) till we had nearly com- 
pleted the classical course." 

From a diary which Garfield kept, he was able to state what 
Miss Booth accomplished in the classics, in the two years re- 
ferred to above, in his eulogy. As they pursued their studies 
together, his statement of her acliievements is a faithful record 
of his own. In the Winter and Spring Terms of 1853 they read 
Xenophon's Memorabilia entire. So zealous were some of these 
Hiram students that a dozen of them — of course including Miss 
Booth and Garfield — hired a professor for a month of the sum- 
mer vacation, and a "Literary Society" was formed. Bearing 
in mind that Garfield is giving the list of his own studies at 
this period, we quote from his euolgy, as follows : 

"Miss Booth read thoroughly, and for the first time, the 
' Pastorals ' of Virgil — that is. the Georgics and Bucolics entire — 
and the first six books of Homer's Iliad, accompanied by a 
thorough drill in the Latin or Greek grammar at each recita- 
tion. I am sure that none of those who recited with her would 
say she was behind the foremost in the thoroughness of her 
work or the elegance of her translation. 

*• During the Fall Term of 1853, she read one hundred pages 
of Herodotus, and about the same amount of Livy. During that 
term also. Profs. Dunshee and Hull, and Miss Booth and I, met, 
at her room, two evenings of each week, to make a joint trans- 



28 THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

lation of the Book of Romans. Prof. Dunshee contributed his 
studies of the German Commentators, De Wette and Thohick ; 
and each of the translators made some special study for each 
meeting. How nearly we completed the translation I do not 
remember ; but I do remember that the contributions and criti- 
cisms of Miss Booth were remarkable for suggestiveness and 
sound judgment. Our work was more thorough than rapid, for 
I lind this entry in my diary for December 15, 1853 : ' Transla- 
tion Society sat three hours at IMiss Booth's room, and agreed 
upon the translation of nine verses.' 

" During the Winter Term of 1853-54, she continued to read 
Livy, and also read the whole of ' Demosthenes on the Crown.' 
The members of the class in Demosthenes were Miss Booth, A. 
Hull, C. C. Foote, and myself. 

'' During the Spring Term of 1854, she read the ' Germania 
and Agricola ' of Tacitus, and a portion of Hesiod." 

It was under the peculiar circumstances existing at Hiram 
that Garfield came to become what is called a " preacher." 
Teachers and pupils were nearly all "Disciples." They held 
what were called "social meetings," at which some of the 
-' elders" or leaders of the church would open with prayer, 
and call on the young men who were church-members to speak. 
They early recognized in young Garfield a sort of vigor and 
force of expression and facility of speech, and naturally called 
on him, so that it finally came to be understood that he was 
expected to speak on every occasion. But at first he did so 
with great diffidence. He felt awkward, and felt a sense of his 
inferiority in culture to many of those around him, but he per- 
severed, and, what with his practice in debating societies, 
gradually got to think freely on his legs, and developed such 
power that often, when the preacher at church did not feel like 
speaking, he would call on " Brother Garfield." This, among 
the "Disciples," was entirely natural. It did not signify or 
imply 'any intention to recognize him even as an incipient 
" preacher," in the common ecclesiastical sense. 

To review the tremendous work done by Garfield at Hiram, 
before going to college. He began at Hiram in the fall of 
1851, with but twenty-four weeks of Latin and twelve weeks of 



THE LIFE OF GEK. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 29 

Greek. He taught for two winters in the district school. 
After the first term he taught constantly from three to six, 
and later, the whole six classes, so that he could only study 
nights and mornings. In June, 1854 — less than three years after 
he went to Hiram — he not only had fitted himself to enter 
college, but had completed two years of the college course, so 
as to be admitted in the junior class in Williams, in full and 
good standing. He not only paid his way as he went, and sup- 
ported himself, but had " saved up" about $350. If there is 
any precedent for such achievements I never saw or heard of it. 

It is impossible to overestimate the forming character of the 
studies thus athletically pursued, at such a period of Garfield's 
life, with such singular enthusiasm and in such inspiring and 
elevating and refining companionship. Such a combination of 
circumstances, influences, and associations was far more valua- 
ble to the formation of the tastes, tendencies, aspirations, senti- 
ments, and principles of the future soldier and statesman than 
the most famous universities of the world could have supplied. 
Mind and heart were simultaneously quickened and developed. 
The whole man was made more manly by submitting to the in- 
^uence and instruction of a noble woman. 

It is to Garfield's high credit that he grows more and more 
proud of the education which this woman filled with her own 
spirit. Of her and her influence he speaks as unreservedly as 
did John Stuart Mill of that of his wife, as to which, in his 
eulogy of Miss Booth, Garfield says : 

" I should reject his opinion on that subject as a delusion, did 
I not know, from my own experience as well as that of hundreds 
of Hiram students, how great a power Miss Booth exercised over 
the culture and opinions of her friends." 

Note.— Certainly it was not one of the least important of the experiences of 
Garfield as professor at Hiram that there came to him just such a pupil as Burke 
A. Hinsdale, who was to become his jnoltge and intimate friend. Mr. Hinsdale 
thus describes the first acquaintance: 

" To me, General Garfield is no more than he was before his nomination at 
Chicago. My acquamtance- with him began in November, 1853. Tben it was 
that, a gawky boy, the smell of the furrow upon my garments. I first appeared in 



30 THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

Hiram. He soon made the capture of my heart. At that time the leading 
Hiram men were called Philomatheans, from the society to which they belonged. 
In an address delivered in 1875, speaking of the old Hiram days, I said : ' Henry 
James (an old Hiram man) speaks of the Philomathesians as " wonderful men," 
mentions those that he thought the " master spirits," and adds : "Then began 
to grow up in me an admiration and love for Garfield that has never abated, and 
the like of which I have never known. A bow of recognition, or a single word 
from him, was to me an inspiration." The exact parallel of my own experience. 
Garfield, you have taught me more than any other man, living or dead ; and 
when I recall those early days, when I remember that James and I were not the 
last of the boys, proud as I am of your record as a soldier and statesman, I can 
hardly forgive you for abaudoniug the academy for the field and the forum 1 ' 
And the cheers with which the old chapel rung as I read the paragraph showed 
that a heart chord had been struck." 

The half brotherly and half fatherly affection of Garfield for Hinsdale grew 
with the years, and no father could have taken a more constant and affectionate 
interest in Hinsdale's whole subsequent life than Garfield did. But this implied 
no lack of independence on Hinsdale's part, for it is equally creditable to both 
that he felt free to criticise Garfield at all times, and that Garfield rather en- 
couraged the criticisms that came from a younger man, who was not only abso- 
lutely loyal to him, but to truth and conscience. To no other human being, save 
his wife, has Garfield written so long, so frequently, with such absolute freedom 
and with such fulness. Mr. Hinsdale— or President Hinsdale, I should say, for 
he is Garfield's worthy successor in the presidency of Hiram College— has pre- 
served every scrap of pai)er he has received from his great friend. To his great 
liberality, confidence, and devotion to Garfield, I am indebted for the absolutely 
unrestrained use of his whole collection of letters from Garfield, about 400 in all. 
They include a correspondence lasting from 1857 to the eve of the Chicago Con- 
vention. Most of them Hinsdale had not looked at for many years. That he 
should fearlessly submit them to the scrutiny and use of a stranger is an ultimate 
proof of the absolute knowledge he had that there was nothing in the most 
hasty and confidential notes of Garfield that would not bear inspection and the 
light. How many of our public men would be willing to have such a correspond- 
ence exposed to even a private view f 



CHAPTER V. 

GARFIELD AT WILLIAMS. 

In selecting a college wherein to pursue the last half of the 
usual curriculum, Garfield, as usual, acted with great care and 
judgment. He would naturally have drifted to Bethany, the 
college in Western Virginia founded by Alexander Campbell, 
and sustained by the "Disciples," if he had been a drifter; 
the exact reverse of which he was, as is shown by the follow- 
ing letter, written about that time by Garfield, which I find in 
Whitelaw Reid's " Ohio in the War," viz. : 

"There are three reasons why I have decided not to go to Bethany: Ist. 
The course of study is not so extensive or thorough as in Eastern colleges. 2d. 
Bethany leans too heavily toward slavery. 3d. I am the son of Disciple parents, 
am one myself, and have had but little acquaintance with people of other views ; 
and, having always lived in the West, I think it will make me more liberal, both 
in my religious and general views and sentiments, to go into a new circle, where 
I shall be under new influences. These considerations led me to conclude to go 
to some New England college. I therefore wrote to the Presidents of Brown 
University, Yale, and Williams, setting forth the amount of study I had done, 
and asking how long it would take me to finish their course. 

" These answers are now before me. All tell me I can graduate in two 
years. They are all brief business notes, but President Hopkins concludes with 
this sentence : 'If you come here, we shall be glad to do what we can for you.' 
Other things being so nearly equal, this sentence, which seems to be a kind of 
friendly grasp of the hand, has settled the question for me. I shall start for 
Williams next week." 

It was a wise choice. First, because Williams was a small 
rural college, where a poor young man could get along and be 
respected, but mainly because its whole spirit was that of the 
great man who was then its President, Mark Hopkins, who was 
in the full vigor of his powers — a man unique in college history 
for the union of philosophic breadth, wide attainments, gener- 
ous manhood, and capacity to communicate. He was quick to 



32 THE LIFE OF GEI^. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

recognize " the making" of a great man in the awkward 
young Western giant who came to his care, and there sprang up 
between teacher and pupil a friendship that has grown to this 
day. 

In preparing this chapter in regard to Garfield's Williams 
experience I gratefully availed myself of the kind offer of 
Colonel A. F. Rockwell, an able and accomplished oflScer in the 
Quartermaster's Department of the United States Army, who 
was a classmate of Garfield at Williams, and has ever since been 
an intimate friend and correspondent. Colonel Rockwell pro- 
posed to send, and did send, a circular letter to each of the sur- 
viving members of the class, asking for such reminiscences as 
might be interesting and appropriate for this book. The let- 
ters which follow, fiom Garfield's classmates, all came in re- 
sponse to Colonel Rockwell's letter. Afterward, knowing the 
intimate personal relations between Cyrus W. Field, Esq., and 
both ex-President Hopkins and President Chadbourne, I asked 
Mr. Field to write to both for such letters as they might choose 
to send me. 

These letters, taken together, present such a complete picture 
of Garfield, as a Williams student, that they need very little, if 
any, connection or comment. I give first the letters of Dr. 
Hopkins and President Chadbourne, as follows : 

REMINISCENCES BY EX-PRESIDENT HOPKINS. 

Williams College, July 17, 1880. 
Major Btjitdt. 

Dear Sir: You ask some account of the college life of Gen. Garfield. I re- 
member no incidents worthy of note, but some characteristics may be given. 
Anything that may aid the people in forming a judgment of his fitness for the 
office to which he is nominated they have a right to. 

My first ""^mark, then, is that General Garfield was not sent to college. He 
came. This often marks a distinction between college students. To some, col- 
lege is chiefly a place of aimless transition through the perilous period between 
boyhood and manhood. Without fixed principles, and with no definite aim, with 
an aversion to study rather than a love of it, they seek to fret along with the least 
possible effort. Between the whole attitude and bearing of such, and of one 
who comes^ the contrast is like that between mechanical and vital force. In 
•vhat Gen. Garfield did there wae nothing mechanical. He not only came, but 



THE LIFE OF GEK. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 33 



made sacrifices to come. His work was from a vital force, and so was without 
fret or worry. He came with a high aim, and pursued it steadily. 

A second remark ia that the studies of Gen. Garfield had breadth. Aa 
every student should, he made it his first business to master the studies of the 
class-room. This he did, but the college furnishes facilities, and is intended, 
especially in the latter part of its course, to furnish opportunity for gaining gen- 
eral knowledge, and for self-directed culture. To many, the most valuable re- 
sult of their college course is from these. What they have aflinity for they find, 
and often make most valuable acquisitions in general literature, in history, in 
natural science, and in politics. Of these facilities and of this opportunity Gen. 
Garfield availed himself largely. Of his tendency toward politics in those days 
we have an illustration in a poem entitled " Sam," which he delivered while in 
college, and in which he satirized the Know-Nothing Party. He manifested 
while in college the same tendency toward breadth which he has since, for it ia 
well known that he has been a general scholar and a statesman rather than a 
mere politician. 

And as Gen. Garfield was broad in his scholarship, so was he in his sympa- 
thies. No one thought of him as a recluse, or as bookish. Not given to athletic 
sports, he was fond of them. His mind was open to the impression of natural 
scenery, and, as his constitution was vigorous, he knew well the fine points on 
the mountains around us. He was also social in his disposition, both giving 
and inspiring confidence. So true is this of his intercourse with the officers of 
the college as well as with others, that he was never even suspected of anything 
low or trickish ; and hence, in part, the confidence I have always felt in his in- 
tegrity. He had a quick eye for anything that turned up with a ludicrous side 
to it, and celebrated a trick the Freshmen played on the Sophomores by a clever 
parody of Tennyson's." Charge of the Light Brigade," published in the College 
Quarterly. Respecting always the individuality of others, and commanding 
without exacting their respect, he was a general favorite with his associates. 

A further point in Gen. Garfield's course of study worthy of remark was its 
eveimess. There was nothing startling at any one time, and no special prefer- 
ence for any one study. There was a large general capacity applicable to any 
subject, and sound eense. As he was more mature than most, he naturally had 
a readier and firmer grasp of the higher studies. Hence his appointment to the 
metaphysical oration, then one of the high honors of the class. What he did 
was not done with facility, but by honest and avowed work. There was no pre- 
tence of genius, or alternation of spasmodic effort and of rest, but a satisfactory 
accomplishment in all directions of what was undertaken. Hence there was a 
steady, healthful, onward and upward progress, such as has characterized his 
course since his graduation. If that course should still be upward, it would add 
another to the grand illustrations we have already of the spirit of our free Insti- 
tutions. * * * 

PRESIDENT CHADBOURNE'S LETTER. 

Williams College, Williamstown, Mass., July 9, 1880. 
General Garfield graduated from Williams College in 1856. He evident/y 
came to college for a purpose, and nothing turned him from that purpose. He 



34 THE LIFE OF GEiq". JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

recognized the fact that the professors were placed over the college to Instruct 
and govern the students. He gained from them all the good he could, and those 
now living remember him as a noble man even as a student. He then gave 
promise of what he has since become— that is, a man equal to any emergency, a 
man of strong convictions of duty and unflinching courage. There are no stones 
to be told of him of insubordination to law, neglect of work, or indulgence in stale 
college tricks— those things he left to other men. Hard work, a genial nature, 
and manly spirit gave promise of that growth of character and constantly in- 
creasing influence which all have witnessed since Gen. Garfield became promi- 
nent in public life. It is pleasant for instructors to see their pupils come to 
honor, but when, as in this case, the honors seem to be so natural a result of 
wise, energetic action begun in college days, they are in duty bound to present 
Buch examples to those just beginning life. Few can have the opportunities for 
the kind of success achieved by Gen. Garfield, but had no political honor ever 
come to him, he would have been a power for good in the world. 

P. A. Chadbournb. 

LETTER PROM THE HON. C. H. HILL. 

33 School Street, Boston, June 23, 1880. 

I think at that time he was paying great attention to German, and devoted 
all his leisure time to that language. In his studies, his taste was rather for 
metaphysical and philosophical studies than for history and biography, which 
Were the studies most to my liking, but he read besides a good deal of pottry 
and general literature. Tennyson was then and has ever been since one of his 
favorite authors, and I remember, too, when Hiawatha was published, how 
greatly he admired it, and how he would quote almost pages of it in our walks 
together. He was also greatly interested in Charles Kingsley's writings, particu- 
larly in Alton Locke and Yeast. I first, I think, introduced him to Dickens and 
gave him Oliver Twist to read, and he roared with laughter over Mr. Bumble. 

We belonged to the Philologian Society, one of the two great literary 
societies of the college, and it was at his suggestion that I attended its weekly 
meetings regularly, and almost always took part in the debate. I think he was 
considered our best debater, although we had several who were very good. 
Garfield had always been a Whig of the Seward and Wade school, and until the 
organization of the Republican Party, in 1856, men with his opinions, during our 
college days, were in a sort of political limbo, for he would have nothing to do 
with the Know-Nothing Party, which then seemed to be carrying everything 
before it, and attracted large numbers of young men, but whose principles he 
strongly condemned, and he had no liking, of course, for the Democracy. The 
great political questions of the day— the treatment of Kansas, the dangers from 
the influx of foreigners and from the Roman Catholic Church, the constitution- 
ality of Personal Liberty Bills, the Crimean war, and the desirability of an 
elective judiciary— were eagerly debated in the Philologian, and he invariably 
took part, except during the period when he was President of the society. 
Two members of the Convention at Chicago which nominated him for Presi- 
dent were active members of the society, Mr. W. S. B. Hopkins, of Worces- 
ter, Massachusetts, and our clasBmate, General. Ferris Jacob^^, of Delhi, N. Y. 



THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 35 

Other prominent debaters were the lamented Dr. Dimmock, of Adams Academy, 
Quincy ; ex-Senator Hitchcock, of Nebraska ; E. L. Lincoln (now deceased) ; 
S. B. Forbes, and Charles Marsh, of the Class of 1855, and Charles S. Halsey, 
Edward Clarence Smith, C. D. Wilber, and others whom I do not now recall, 
of our own class. In all these debates, I should say that be was distinguished 
for moderation -not always, perhaps, in expression, but in opinion. His m- 
Btincts were conservative. I remember distinctly that he was, when he came to 
coUege, a fervent supporter of an elective judiciary, but in preparing himself to 
take part in a debate on that subject, he studied himself over to the opposite 
Bide of the question, and began his speech by frankly admitting that he had 
within a week entirely chansed his opinions on this subject. 

In 1870, 1 was appointed Assistant Attorney-General of the United States, 
and for five winters my rooms were in the same street with Garfield's house at 
Washington, and but a few doors from it, and either at his house, or at the 
Capitol, I saw him almost daily. I think, in college, he looked forward rather 
to a professional and judicial career than to a political one, but J perceived that 
his intellectual growth since he left college had been a steady and consistent 
expansion of what he was as a young man. His political opinions, as they 
showed thempclves in our conversations, were what they appear, I think, in his 
speeches— broad and conservative— those of a party man who, however, looks 
beyond party, and of a practical statesman who deals with existing facts, and 
does the best with them, rather than those of a political doctrinaire. His con- 
sistent and unflinching support of honest money, and constant enforcement of 
the duty of maintaining the national honor by paying the creditor according to 
his contract, reminds me of one trait in his character. Although a poor boy, and 
a very poor man in college, and although he has been comparatively poor ever 
since, I never perceived in him the slightest tincture of bitterness or envy 
toward those who were better oflf than he was, or of dislike for the rich 
because they are rich. In my long intimate companionship with him, I am cer- 
tain he would more than once have betrayed some such feeling had he enter- 
tained it, and I know I should have noticed and remembered it. At Washington, 
he was always delighted to see old college friends, and talk over college days, 
about which his memory is wonderfully retentive. Two other members of our 
class, Mr. Gilfillan, Treasurer of the United States, and Colonel Rockwell, 
resided in Washington at the time, and formed a nucleus for class meetings 
whenever an old classmate turned up. Toward Williams College he has always 
entertained a most fiJial aff"ection, and ever speaks with deep feeling of the bene- 
fits which he derived from his two years' residence there, and especially from the 
instruction and influence of Dr. Hopkins, the President, who during his thirty 
years' tenure of that oflSce impressed himself as strongly upon the young men 
under his charge as any college instructor the country has ever seen, and who 
has old pupils on the Supreme Bench of the United States, in both Houses of 
Congress, and in other positions of trust and influence throughout the land. 
I remain your obedient servant, 

Clkmknt HuaH Hiix. 
J. M. BuNDv, Esq. 



36 THE LIFE OF GE:N". JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



LETTER FROM THE REY. JAMES K. HAZEN. 

pxiesbtterian committee of publication, ) 

1001 Main Street, v 

RiCHMOKD, Ya., June 22, 1880. ) 

The warm personal regard and affection I have for Garfield lead me to 
respond with alacrity, though I fear I can furnish you little that will be valua- 
ble for the purpose whicn you have in view. 

We expected much of Garfield when in college, and predicted for him a seat 
in Congress within less than ten years of his graduation (he reached it in seven), 
but, so far as I know, our class prophecies did not point to a Presidential candi- 
dacy ; if they had, our memoranda would doubtless have been very full. 

It was my privilege to board at the same table with Garfield during our 
Senior year, and I have a very vivid recollection of our daily conversations upon 
the various subjects of study that engaged our attention, but particularly upon 
the Shorter Catechism. 

It was the custom then, and perhaps is still, in old Willifims. for the 
Senior Class to devote Saturday morning to an exercise in that time honored 
standard of the Calvinistic failh, under the instructions of President Hopkins, 
and, though holding a different type of theology, none of our class entered into 
the study more heartily than Garfield. It suited his metaphysical turn of mind. 

In the discussions that followed, as we went from the class-room to our din- 
ner-table, I was always impressed with the keenness of his criticisms, though 
my faith in the old Catechism and its doctrines was not shaken, and with the 
straightforward fairness and the hearty respect which he accorded to views 
which he utterly refused to accept. It occurs to me that in this we have a char- 
acteristic feature of the man, which has more than once been prominently mani- 
fested in his political career. 

The occurrences of the last few days have recalled to my mind very vividly 
the beginning of the campaign of 1856, twenty-four years ago. The first Presi- 
dential candidate of the Republican Party, John C. Fremont, was nominated 
shortly before our graduation. A college ratification meeting was held, on 
receipt of the news, and, among others of the Senior Class, Garfield spoke. 
Probably this was his first Republican speech, and I can testify that it was 
enthusiastic and eloquent. 

He had turned his attention to politics before this eomewhat, having de- 
livered, on the occasion of the Adelphic Union Exhibition, 1855, a poem, entitled 
" Sam," which may be found in Yol. III., No. 1, page 25, of the Williams 
Quarterly. 

Of the heartiness and cheeriness of his manner as a friend and companion, I 
have the plea«'":itest recollections, and I can recall nothing whatever that in the 
slightest degree mars this impression. 

Strong, however, as was my attachment to Garfield during our college life, it 
has been greatly strengthened by incidents that have since occurred. 

It was my fortune to be the only one of my classmates on the losing side in 
Ihe late war. Going South very soon after graduation, it has been my home 
ever since. In 1871 or 1872, some fifteen years from the time we graduated, 
business called me to Washington, and I found there several of my classmates 



THE LIFE OF GEJS^. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 37 

and college acquaintances occupying various positions of honor and responsi- 
bility, but none of them recognized me as I met them, and I was under the 
necessity of introducing my!?elf . Not so, however, with Garfield. On the morn- 
ing of my arrival a friend had given me a seat on the floor of I he House at the 
opening of the session. Shortly afterward Garfield came in from the opposite 
side of the hall, and approaching his desk, which happened to be just before the 
one I occupied, he recognized me the moment he entered and greeted me at 
once with my old colU'ge nickname, "Rfx." I mention this as indicating the 
possession of one of those facultiws which men of high position have found it 
necessary to cultivate. But what I designed to mention especially in connection 
with this was the warm welcome I received to his home, and the many kind- 
nesses experienced then and on subsequent occasions, many of them prompted, 
as lam disposed to think, by the very fact that I was regarded in the light of 
*' an erring brother." Yours, very truly, 

. Jas. K. Hazen. 

LETTER FROM THE REV. JOHN TATLOCK. 

HoosicK Falls, N. Y., June 25, 1880. 

Mr. Garfield displayed in college that perfect self-possession, that entire 
command of liis powers and of his mental resources, which afterward made 
him successful in the field and a ready and powerful d?bater in Congress. 

Of his boldness and facility in turning to account vague scraps of informa- 
tion, which more timid men would fear to use, and which less able men could 
not use, I recall an illustration : 

In his Junior year he was engaged in a public debate between representa- 
tives of the two literary societies. The speaker who preceded him on the oppo- 
site side produced an elaborate illustration from " Don Quixote." Garfield, in 
reply, raised a laugh against his opponent by comparing him to the knight at- 
tacking the windmill. " Or rather," said he, " it would be more appropriate to 
say that the gentleman resembles the windmill attacking the knight." 

At the supper following the debate Garfield was rallied on his extensive ac- 
quaintance with the classics. He laughingly replied that he had never read 
" Don Quixote," and had heard only an allusion to the mad knight's assault upon 
the fiying arms of the innocent mill. . . . 

To this I wiH only add that he was a man of a sweet, large and wholesome 
nature, and endeared himself the most to these who knew him best. 
Yours truly, John Tatlock, 

Classmate of Gen. Garfield, and Co-Editor with him. 

LETTER FROM MR. SILAS P. HUBBELL. 

Champlain, Clinton County, N. Y., June 28, 1880. 
Garfield entered our Junior Class in fall of '54. lie brought with him from 
Ohio another student, Charles D. Wilbur, who joined our class at same time, 
and between thera there seemed to be a strong attachment. They roomed to- 
gether in South College, and, as we termed it, were college chums. Wilbur unfor- 
tunately wa* lame and limped badly, and required the help of crutches or a 



38 THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 



stoat cane. They were always together, and Garfield's kindness to his crippled 
chum was very noticeable. The pair in their daily walks to and from the reci- 
tatiou-rooms and about the college grounds excited the eager gaze and curiosity 
of their fellow-students, from their quaint and odd appearance and evident un- 
familiarity with college ways and doings. 

Besides, the contrast in the appearance of the couple was very striking— Gar- 
field of large frame, looming up six feet high, strong and healthy, and looking 
like a backwoodsman, and Wilbur, with a pale, intellectual cast of countenance 
limping along beside him. 

They made no attempt to conform to the ways and peculiarities of college 
life, or to ingratiate themselves with the students. They both seemed to be in 
dead earnest, s-triving to get an education, and to be entirely engrossed in their 
studies and college duties. 

Their position at first was a very isolated and peculiar one, and which 
was somewhat enhanced by a whisper that soon circulated among the 
students that they were Campbellites. Now, what that meant, or what tenets the 
sect held, nobody seemed to know, but It was supposed to mean something 
very awful. But they continued on pursuing the even tenor of their way, un- 
moved by the stares and criticisms of their companions. After a time this feel- 
ing passed away, and Garfield, by his successful attainments and straightforward, 
manly course, commanded the respect and admiration of his class and of the 
whole college. 

College lite, as everybody knows, is a world in miniature ; we had our elec- 
tions, our debate s, our caucuses, our anxie'ies and ambitious desires. There 
were two large debating societies in the college, one the Philologians, the other 
the Philotechnians, and a strong rivalry existed between the two societies. Gar- 
field joined the Philologian Society, and took great interest in its welfare. 
He very soon took prominence as a debater, and by his ready wit and 
intimate knowledge of the subject discussed generally won his side of the 
case. lie w as a very hard student, and he never would speak or enter into the 
debate unless he had thoroughly mastered tlie subject beforehand. The subjects 
discussed in these meetings were of a varied character, but he always spoke on 
the side of right and freedom, and in behalf of the people and against oppression 
of all kinds. In October, 1855, in the public debate between the two societies 
held in the college chapel, he was one of the persons elected to represent his 
society in the debate. The subject for discussion was, " Was the Feudal System 
Beneficial ?" The negative was supported by Garfield, and by his animated, ear 
nest, and convincing arguments, and enthusiastic denunciations of the oppres- 
sions of the system, he won the hearty applause of his auditory. At the begin- 
ning of the Senior year he was elected President of the Philologian Society by a 
large majority, and won the admiration of all by his knowledge of parliamen- 
tary tactics, and the ease and grace with which he presided over the assembly. 

At the commencement of Senior year Garfield was elected one of the editors 
of the Williams Quarterly, a periodical conducted by the students, and won an 
honorable distinction in our literary world by his contributions to the magazine. 
Some of his essays at the time were very noticeable, one in particular I now 
remember, entitled " The Province of History," which showed a depth of re- 



THE LIFE OF GEK. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 39 

search and broad, far-reaching views as to the province of history which was not 
expected of an undergraduate at college. This article appeared in the number 
for June, 1856, and placed Garfield at the front in regard to literary attainments. 

Garfield early joined the Mills Theological Society, which represented 
Bome of the best men in college. They held meetings every week, had a very 
fine library, embraced among their members a great deal of the best culture and 
talent in the college. It was unsectarian in character, and wielded a powerful 
influence for good over the whole college. 

Garfield successively filled the offices of Librarian and President of the so- 
ciety, and by his urbanity, innate kindliness of nature, and good sound judgment 
in the management of its afiairs, won the respect and esteem of all its members. 
Garfield was quiet and undemonstrative in his religious habits. There was no 
cant about him. But he impressed all with his deep sincerity and honesty of 
purpose. He lived the life of a true Christian. 

I well remember commencement day at " Old Williams," when our class 
graduated. Garfield took one of the highest honors of his class, called the meta- 
physical oration. The subject of his oration was "Matter and Spirit." The 
audience were wonderfully impressed with his oratory, and at the close there 
was a wild tumult of applause, and a showering down upon him of beautiful 
bouquets of flowers by the ladies, a most fitting end to his arduous, self-denying 
college course and a bright augury for the future. 

I remain respectfully yours, Silas P. Hitbbell. 

LETTER FROM MR. LAVALETTE WILSON. 

HivERSTRAW, N. Y,, June 28, 1880. 

Mr. Garfield even then show^ that magnetic power which he now exhibits 
in a remarkable degree in public life, of surrounding himself with men of vari- 
ous talents, and of employing each to the best advantage in his sphere. When 
questions for discussion arose in the college societies, Garfield would give each 
of his allies a point to investigate ; books and documents from all the libraries 
would be overhauled, and the mass of facts thus obtained being brought to- 
gether, Garfield would analyze the whole, assign each of his associates his part, 
and they would go into the battle to conquer. He was always in earnest and 
persistent in carrying his point, often agaiast apparently insurmountable ob- 
stacles, and in college election contests (which are often more intense than 
national elections) he was always successful. 

He showed perfect uprightness of character, was religious without cant or 
austerity.and his influence for good was widely felt. Inever heard an angry word 
or a hasty expression, or a sentence which needed to be recalled. He possessed 
equanimity of temper, self-possession, and self-control in the highest degree. 
What is more, I never heard a profane or improper word or an indelicate al- 
lusion from his lips. He was in habits, speech, and example a pure man. 

Arising, some may say from his own early struggles, but as I believe from 
his native nobility of character, was hia sympathy for the suffering or depressed 
or humble. He would find out their wishes and desires, their best points, 
and where their ability lay, and encourage them to advancement and success. 
Not even now has he any of that inapproachability and hauteur which too 



40 THE LIFE OF GEiq-. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



often accompany great talents and high position. He is a democrat in the high- 
est eense of the word ; no matter how humble a position a person may hold, how 
nnfashionably dressed, how countrified in appearance, or lacking in knowledge 
of the usages of polite society, he will feel at ease in Mr. Garfield's presence, 
and receive the same courtesy and-probably greater attention than would th« 
Prince of Wales. 

On entering Williams College, Mr. Garfield was uncommitted in national 
politics ; perhaps his first lesson came from John Z. Goodrich, who at that 
time represented in Congress the western district of Massachusetts. In the fall 
of 1855 Mr. Goodrich delivered a political address in Williamstown on the 
history of the Kansas-Nebraska struggle, and the efforts of the handful of Re- 
publicans then in Congress to defeat the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. 
As Mr. Goodrich spoke, I sat at Garfield's side, and saw him drink in every 
word. He said as we passed out, " This subject is entirely new to me. I am go- 
ing to know all about it." He sent for documents, studied them till he became 
perfectly familiar with the history of the anti-slavery struggle, and from that 
hour has been the thorough Republican, the champion of right against injustice, 
that he is at this hour. Lavalette Wilson. 

LETTER FROM MR. ELIJAH CUTTER. 

Boston, June 30, 1880. 

He had a robust physique and an open countenance. There was no stint in 
his make-up, and no "style," no assumed gentility, but much of "nature's 
nobleman" about him. 

He was a little in advance of the average class age, and had an exuberant 
growth of hair, while his maturity of thought and expression, not unmixed with 
" Westernisms," challenged our attention. Yet in all youthful feelings and im- 
pulses he was as truly a boy as any in the class. His unstudied and often unskil- 
ful handling of himself was always accompanied by real delicacy of feeling and 
mental adroitness and aptitude. Garfield's greatness was to our young eyes enig- 
matical, but it was real. There was a good deal of him— hody, soul and spirit. 
Nature had not defaulted in his make-up, and his talents were of the popular 
order. 

That a serious purpose brought Garfield to college, and how bent he was on 
accomplishing it, none who knew him in daily life could doubt. He accomplished 
much and aspired to more, not alone in class studies, but in other and varied 
acquirements. He read much of history and poetry. He was passionately fond 
of Shakespeare, and gave to debates and other optional literary exercise* 
much attention. 

I think most if not all of our clas8 will remember Garfield pleasantly for his 
companionable traits. Not in the ordinary sense a "hail fellow well met," he 
had that genial temperament which readily drew others about him. Who 
among the men of 1856 does not recall among the picturesque memories of East 
College, that of Garfield sitting on the fence or rolling at full length on the cam- 
pus, convulsed with some newly fledged joke, or apt nickname, or droll persona- 
tion, or college yam ? There were a few fine specimens of nimble wits in the 
class of which Garfield might not be reckoned one, but none more ready to ap- 



THE LIFE OF GEN^. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 41 

predate and perpetuate the college hnmor than he, and in all that goes to main- 
tain the recreative and sportiug life among yonng men he was prominent. 

I should like to speak of Garfield in his religious nature, and of those high 
moral convictions which rendered him conspicuous in college, not less than 
In his public career since, and of some deep struggles he went through while 
weighing the question of entering upon politics as a profession. Some of these 
experiences would exhibit Garfield in a true light, if the boy is but the father of 
the man. But I fear I should trespass both upon his confidence and your space- 
I am, sir, yours very respectfully, 

Elijah Cutteu. 

LETTER PROM THE REV. E. N. MANLEY. 

Camden, N. Y., July 8, 1880. 

Garfield played chess with interest and success. The game becoming fas- 
cinating, threatening study hours, and finally carrying him once or twice near 
to, if not over into, the small hours of night, he said, "This won't do," and 
stopped short oflf. 

We used to have an annual holiday called "Mountain-Day." At the close 
of one, a Fourth of July evening, on the summit of old " Greylock," seven 
miles from college, there was a goodly gathering of students about their camp- 
fire, when Garfield, the recognized leader, taking a copy of the New Testament 
from his pocket, said, "Boys, I am accustomed to read a chapter with my absent 
mother every night ; shall I read aloud ?" All assenting, he read to us the chap- 
ter his mother in Ohio was then reading, and called on a classmate to pray. 

I think it was at the breaking-up meeting of the class, at graduation, that, 
being called up for a speech, he said, " yap is a Greek proposition meaning for. 
Gar-field, for-the-field. That is what I suppose I am." 

E. N. Manley, Pastor Presbyterian Church. 

I have saved for the last a remarkable letter from the Kev. 
Edward Clarence Smith, of Philadelphia, a graduate of the Law 
as well as of the Divinity school, and an especial favorite with 
the class of 1856. As will be seen, it was written to Colonel 
Rockwell, and without the slightest notion that it would ever 
be wanted for publication. 

LETTER FROM THE REV. EDWARD CLARENCE SMITH. 

501 N. Eighteenth St., Philadelphia, June 15, 1880. 
To Colonel A. F. Rockwell, U. S. Army, Washington, D. C. 

My Dear Old Fi-iend and Classmate : I thank you for your kind letter of the 
10th inst. I joy and rejoice with you. I am glad to hear from one who so thor- 
oughly appreciates the great power and worth of our honored and beloved Gar- 
field. What you say of his mental growth and maturing powers I fully endorse. 
Tn sheer force and reach of faculty, in breadth of thought and culture, I believe 
he is the peer of the best man in America to-day. But what seems grander to 



42 THE LIFE OF GE^-. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

me Is his unswervlnj? loyalty to conscience, to truth, and to his country's good ; 
in a word, his magnificent manliness. 

I sincerely believe that there are times in the history of such countries as 
ours when God makes special use of such men. In this scientific age, persons 
do not like to hear the word Providence. But there seem to be certain super- 
human arrangements and adjustments that philosophy cannot explain, and that 
M'ork out righteous results. Human ingenuity does not devise them ; human 
wisdom does not foresee them. I call it the insertion of a Divine factor in his- 
tory. It does not compel the human will ; it does not destroy personal free- 
dom, but it does achieve its results with resistless might, and with infallible cer- 
tainty. What think you of a theohgico-j^hUosophico-mathematical formula like 
this ? a X b=c, in which " a " is man's freedom, intact, but finite; " b " a divine- 
ly inserted factor, unlimited ; " c "' the providential plan of God in the issue of 
things. Thus freedom is saved, and the ends of eternal rightnesa achieved. But, 
mathematics and metaphysics aside, it seems to me that our friend has often 
come near that holy place, where Providence touches the machinery which 
weaves out the plans of history, and, doubtless often, without being personally 
conscious of it. 

There are but few sincere souls that are deemed worthy of such honor : 
"Fauci quos cequus amavit Jupiter, aut ardens enexit ad cetfiera virtus.'" Thoy 
are never self-geekers. They work where they are placed. Like ^neas, in the 
fable, they are often covered with a cloud woven by divine fingers, and the 
mass do not see them. But, when they are needed, the cloud breaks away ; they 
are known of men, and are summoned to do God's work, sometimes against 
their will. Washington was such a man, Lincoln was another, and I sincerely be- 
lieve Garfield is a third. Such men can be known by their utter unselfishness, 
their inherent nobility of character, and always by their unconsciousness of 
themselves. Such men invariably impress their generation with a sense of their 
liersonality. To how many millions is Lincoln thoroughly known, though few 
have ever seen him ? The great heart of humanity recognizes such men, when 
they pass, by a kind of di\inely implanted instinct. 

I have long felt that Gen. Garfield vras divinely intended to supply impor- 
tant links in the chain of our country's history. I have therefore anticipated, 
with you, his election to the Presidency. One of my friends reminded me to- 
day that just one year ago I showed him the photograph of Gen. Garfield as 
that of the next President. I have little doubt of bis success. You have seen 
a storm-cloud move over the earth, and gather all the electric forces along its 
course into affinity withit so that the lightning of the earth runs to meet the 
lightning of the cloud : so in case of a divinely chosen man ; he carries in his 
great heart all the instincts, hopes and aspirations of an age. When he ap- 
pears and comes near to men, the love and acclaim of a nation run to meet him. 
There is in my opinion no doubt of our h.mored friend's success. He cannot 
appear, but the people will know him. Did you observe this at Chicago ? The 
machinery was well forged, riveted, and clamped, air-tight and fire-proof. But 
the popular will burst the bonds, as though withes of straw. To change the 
figure, it seemed to be a case of epontaneoua combustion. The party engines 



THE LIFE OF GEK. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 43 

played, hut the fires wc/tild burst through chink and crevice. Finally the gal- 
leries caught fire, and everythins; went. 

Wasn't it grand to see our friend stand by Sherman, with heroic loyalty, to 
the last, protesting against the use of his name, and fearing nothing so much as 
disloyalty to manliness and friendship ? A few words of prophecy : The gal- 
leries at Chicago caught fire, as we know. I foresee that the flames will sweep 
like a prairie fire over the continent ; burning to the very edge of the St. Law- 
rence ; to the surges that break upon Plymouth Rock ; and even to the melan- 
choly murmurs of the great western sea. 

. . . God bless you, my dear fellow. Remember me aflfectionately to our 
honored and loved friend, when you see him ; and, though he may never hear 
from me again, inasmuch as he is now likely to swing out of my horizon, yet tell 
him I glory in his achievements for good, and shall ever wish him God-speed! 
Cordially and afEectionately yours, 

Edwakd Clarbnce Smith. 

With all the cross-lights that are thrown on Garfield's char- 
acter and career at Williams, by those men who knew him best 
under circumstances when character is most perfectly develop- 
ed, it is needless to say much in addition. No college man 
needs to be told that his most critical judges are his classmates, 
who are the last to bow before any fictitious or unworthily won 
success in after life. Other letters from Garfield's classmates 
— not used because more or less repetitions of those already ir 
type— show, as those printed above all show, an enthusiasm of 
admiration such as I never before even heard or read of being 
displayed by old classmates toward one of their number, no 
matter how high distinction or power he may have attained. 
The secret is to be found in the perfect integrity, warm- 
heartedness, great-heartedness, and magnetic power of the man, 
which have made all the sons of Williams, older and younger, 
proud of him, jealous of his honor, and indignantly impatient 
of the scandals that he frankly met, manfully exposed, and fully 
answered, to the satisfaction of every fair-minded and intelli- 
gent man who has read his answers. If such stanch Democrats 
among the alumni of Williams — who have known Garfield 
long and well— as Justice Field, late Democratic candidate for 
the Presidency, and as the Hon. David Dudley Field, will give 
the slightest countenance to these exploded scandals, I shall feel 
that there is some sort of provocation for attempting the not 



44 THE LIFE OF GEIT. JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 

difficult task of satisfying any reasonable and unprejudiced man 
that partisan malignity never pursued an eminent public man 
with less shadow of pretext than exists for ringing the varia- 
tions on the scandals that have been perfectly answered by 
James A. Garfield. 

{Garfield to Col. A. F. Rockwell, U.S.A.) 

Hiram, Ohio, August 13, 1866. 
My Dear Jarvis : My visit to "Williams has washed out the footprints of 
ten years and made me a boy again. Strolling on the shore of life it is with re- 
luctance that I plunge back again into the noisy haunts of men. The noble re- 
union has wedded my heart more than ever to the class and to old Williams. 
Let us not hereafter cease to pay that reverence which is due to youth. I mean 
to go back to Williams as often as I can. The place and its associations shall be to 
me a fountain of perpetual youth. If wrinkles must be written upon our brows, 
let them not be written upon the heart. The spirit should not grow old. 

(Garfield to B. A. Hinsdale.) 

Washington, June 30, 1872. 

After spending all the day Monday on the law case in Cleveland, I took the 
train for Williamstown, which I reached in the evening ; stayed throughout the 
examination and until Friday morning. The exercises were very solemn and 
impressive. The resignation of Dr. Hopkins was a noble act, and the final speech 
in which he delivered up the keys to his successor was one of the rarest grand- 
eur and simplicitj'. His first paragraph was this : "Why do I resign? First, 
that I may not be asked why I do not resign. Second, because I believe in the 
law of averages, and the average man of seventy is not able to bear the burdens 
of this Presidency. And yet I can now bear it. Many of my friends think I 
should continue to bear it. I think it safer to test the law of averages." 

I stayed with Dr. Hopkins as his guest, and it was very touching when the 
old President bade me good-by, saying, " You will observe that I reserved for 
the concluding and final act erf my official life, before laying down the office, 
the conferring upon you the degree of LL.D. I was glad to have my work thus 
assc-ciated with your name." 



CHAPTER VI. 

PROFESSOR, PRESIDENT, AND STATE SENATOR. 

On graduating from Williams with high honors, with the 
highest college popularity, and with the unreserved confidence 
and admiration of President Hopkins and all the faculty, Gar- 
field naturally returned to Hiram for the beginning of his life- 
work as a trained and cultured man. There were his most 
intimate and enduring associations. There the roots of his 
vigorous nature had taken strong and deep hold in all direc- 
tions. Above all, there lived Miss Lucretia Rudolph, whose 
family had removed to Hiram some years before, to enjoy its 
educational advantages. The acquaintance begun at Chester, 
many years previous, when both were students at the Geauga 
Seminary, had ripened into congenial companionship in the 
studies and reading pursued together at Hiram, where he found 
her living near the Institute. She became Garfield's pupil, 
some time afterward, and recited to him in Latin, Greek, and 
geometry, as well as in some other branches of study. She was 
a remaiably fine scholar, with keen perceptions, quick in- 
tuitions, and high ambitions. She sympathized with all of 
Garfield's strenuous struggles for a college education. She was 
his complement and better self. Their union was inevitable, 
and they were engaged in 1854, just as Garfield was about to 
set out for Williams. But with this sensible understanding, 
that the marriage should not occur until he was in such financial 
condition that he would run no risk. It was one of those 
deliberate purposes whose fulfilment the lovers put far enough 
ahead to be prepared for it. They were married on the 11th 
of November, 1858, by the Rev. Dr. Hitchcock, President of 
the Western Reserve College at Hudson, and a happier mar- 
riage, in all respects, was never consummated, or one more 



46 THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GAUFIELD. 

calculated to keep the strong current of Garfield's forceful and 
active life pure, sweet, uncontaminated, and within limits. 

Garfield became Professor of Latin and Greek in 1856. The 
institution was poor and his pay was small. But, as usual, his 
activities burst out in all sorts of channels. He not only taught 
with all his might, but delivered scientific lectures, learning 
his science as he went along, and got considerable pecuniary 
returns therefrom. It was a place and time for " plain living 
and high thinking." He was used to both, and revelled in the 
play of his manifold powders. He put new life into the " Insti- 
tute," or " College," as it w^as successively called. He easily 
rose to be its President, Between his college duties, lecturing, 
reading of all sorts, occasional "preaching" for the "Dis- 
ciples" around Iliram, and political speeches and oraticms, he 
" threw" off, without fatigue or fretting, w^ork enough to wear 
down and out half a dozen ordinarily strong men. The im- 
pulses set in motion by his enthusiastic and varied activities 
were felt all over the Western Reserve. The people there 
recognized a new moral and intellectual force in the young and 
masterful College President, whose upward growth was the 
rising subject of talk. "With all, he was so frank, ingenuous, 
communicative, manly, and unconscious of his own swift self- 
promotion that all the " plain people" took him to their hearts. 
He never "condescended to people of low estate." Conde- 
scension was a manifestation of pride or vanity which was 
utterly impossible to his nature. For every reason — and es- 
pecially because Garfield had shown his equality to the new 
and startling issues of slavery and freedom, of secession and the 
Union, in public speeches of extraordinary intellectual grip, 
clear perception of constitutional and of "the higher" law, 
and oratorical power — it was inevitable that the people should 
call him into the jDublic service, at a period Avhcn so many of 
the old leaders were faint, false, blind, or living in the Past. 

He was elected, in 1859, by the people of Summit and Portagr- 
Counties, as State Senator. His majority was large and attestcJ.. 
Uie strength of his popularity. Although only twenty-eight 



THE LIFE OF GE^T. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 47 

years of age, and new to legislation, or any other official experi- 
ence, he speedily took rank as one of the readiest and best 
informed debaters in a body containing many experienced and 
able men. Realizing the nature of the " irrepressible conflict" 
that was breaking up jmrties and confounding the wisdom 
of old leaders, he was not long in arraying himself alongside of 
Senator Jacob D. Cox — since General, Governor of Ohio, and 
Secretary of the Interior — and Senator Monroe, an Oberlin Pro- 
fessor, and the trio were recognized as the " Radical Senators." 

The first report which Garfield made as a member of a com- 
mittee in the State Senate, was on the revival and completion of 
the geological survey of the State. In such subjects as this his 
enthusiasms have always been easy to be moved, and it would 
be difficult for him even now to write a document of a dozen 
pages, which could more comprehensively and interestingly 
awaken the people of Ohio to the importance of a thorough 
geological survey of their State. His faculty for grouj^ing 
statistics and making them eloquent and practical was well il- 
lustrated in this effective presentation of the vast resources of 
his State. A shorter report on the subject of the education 
of the neglected, destitute, and pauper children, was a fitting 
prelude to the large a-nd more important efforts in the cause of 
education, as to which no one of our public men has developed 
such a combination of philosophical thinking, applied to a vast 
mass of statistics. 

Another report, on the subject of weights and measures, is a 
brief but comprehensive presentation of the history of English 
and American systems, and of the progress that has been made 
in approximating scientific standards. 

In the last part of Garfield's service as State Senator the fore- 
shadowings of civil war found him ready m his place to take 
measures of precaution worthy of a great and a border State. 
His speech on the 24th of January, 1861, in behalf of a militia 
bill, for raising and equipping 6000 militia, is full of prevision 
of the comiug struggle, and of the spirit which took him to the 
front when the storm burst. In reply to a reminder that at the 



48 THE LIFE OF GEN". JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

preceding session he had opposed the bill as unnecessary, he 
frankly avowed that the change in the times had changed his 
attitude, and that the prevailing reason with him for the pas- 
sage of the bill was the disturbing and threatening aspect of 
national affairs. And he met the issue with characteristic 
courage and frankness as to the j^rotest against coercion, which, 
at that time, it will be remembered, was very prevalent at the 
North. He said : " If by coercion it is meant that the Federal 
Government shall declare and wage war against a State, then I 
have yet to see any man, Democrat or Republican, who is a 
coercionist. But, if by the term it is meant that the General 
Government shall enforce the laws, by whomsoever violated, 
shall protect the property and flag of the Union, shall punish 
traitors to the Constitution, be they ten men or ten thousand, 
then I am a coercionist. Every member of the Senate, by his 
vote on the eighth resolution, is a coercionist. Nine tenths of 
the people of Ohio are coercionists. Every man is a coercionist 
or a traitor." 

In accordance with this speech was his report of a bill for the 
punishment of treason, which was a brief but lawyer-like pre- 
sentation of the reasons for such a bill at such a time, with the 
frank avowal that " it is high time for Ohio to enact a law to 
meet treachery when it shall take the form of an overt act ; to 
provide that when her soldiers go forth to maintain the Union, 
there shall be no treacherous.fire in the rear." 

Doubtless his own instincts told him that he was sure to be 
in the front when the hour of conflict came, and like a good 
soldier, as well as a true patriot, his first act was to protect that 
rear. 

It is perhaps impossible to give a better illustration of the 
manner in which Garfield's mind, from the period of his young 
manhood down to the present, has worked out in all directions 
in order to obtain its results, than is afforded by an incident of 
his service in the Ohio State Senate. He had heard from a dis- 
tinguished and veteran lawyer that the true way to study the 
law, in his judgment, was for a student in any State to begin 



THE LIFE OF GEN". JAMES A. GARFIELD. 49 

with a thorough reading of the statutes of the State. The 
beginner should familiarize himself with every effort to formu- 
late the will of the State into law, and obtain his knowledge of 
legal principles from these individual illustrations of the attempt 
to apply principles of law to actual practice. This suggestion 
fell on Garfield's mind with great force ; aad as in his case 
there is seldom any long interval between receiving a decided 
impression and acting on it, he determined, not to study all 
the statutes of Ohio, but to go through the statutes in search of 
some definite information with regard to a particular subject, 
so that he could string his acquisitions on something and have 
some definite limitations of inquiry. It finally occurred to him 
that he would take up a single dollar and follow it on its travels 
through all the avenues of taxation into the treasury, and of 
expenditure out of it until it finally returned to the pocket of 
the taxpayer, from which it started. In the pursuit of the for- 
tunes and adventures of this peculiar sort of a hero he found 
out just how the law of taxation was adjusted, through what 
oSicers it was attained, what were the powers of those officers 
with regard to taxation, what were their means of enforcing it, 
and how the money was expended, for what purposes, by what 
officers, exercising what authorities, and finally by virtue of 
what legislation, for what object, and through what means it 
returned to the source of its origin. In the course of this highly 
original method of studying law he came upon the startling 
discovery that, through the negligence of the framers of an 
amending act of legislation, the State for some few years pre- 
ceding had been actually without any legal method of ascer- 
taining legal weights and measures. So that the first result of 
his law studies in this direction was the necessity of repairing a 
very serious legislative blunder. The mental grasp and vigor 
and the comprehensive sweep of inquiry revealed in this single 
illustration shows one of the strongest and most peculiar char^ 
acteristics of Garfield's intellectual methods, and reveals the 
secret of his constant preparedness for great emergencies, and of 
tlie athletic vigor and rich and abounding fulness of his mlnd« 



50 THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

But this is not all. Having thus, in the most unexpected 
manner, discovered the necessity for legislation to repair the 
results of legislative carelessness, he developed the same 
thoroughness in the discharge of his duty as legislator. He at 
once moved the appointment of a " select committee of one," 
which was the ordinary proceeding in such cases in the Ohio 
Legislature at that time, to examine and report on the whole 
system of weights and measures. The motion passed, and Gar- 
field was appointed for that duty ; and this report then sub- 
mitted and published remains to this day the most exhaustive 
legislative report on the subject ever made in his State. 

{Garfield toB. A. Hinsdale.) 

Hiram, May 3, 1858. 
To B. A. Hinsdale, C. P. Bo-^tleb, H. M. James, Elizabeth Woodward, 

CORDIE TlLDEN, etC. 

Dear Friends: Your very kind request that I should continue my lectures 
is received. I receive it as a pleasing testimonial of your confidence and re- 
spect, and would willingly accede to your^request were it possible. For the 
present it is not possible, but I will endeavor to present a few more lectures on 
those topics before the close of the term, if circumstances will at all permit. 

{Oarfidd to B. A. Hinsdale.) 

HirIm, January 10, 1859. 

The Sunday after the debate I spoke in Solon on " Geology and Religion," 
and had an immense audience. Many Spiritualists were out. . . . The re- 
ports I hear from the debate are much more decisive than I expected to hear. I 
received a letter from Bro. Collins, of Chagrin, in which he says : " Since the 
smoke of the battle has partially cleared away, we begin to see more clearly the 
victory we have gained." I have yet to see the first man who claims that Denton 
explains his position ; but they are jubilant over his attack on the Bible. What 
you suggest ought to be done I am about to undertake. I go there next Friday 
or Saturday evening and remain over Sunday. I am bound to carry the war into 
Carthage and pursue that miserable atheism to its hofe. 

Bro. Collins says that a few Christians are quite unsettled because Denton 
said, and I admitted, that the world had existed millions of years. I am aston- 
ished at the ignorance of the masses on these subjects. Hugh Miller has it right 
when he says that " the battle of the evidences must now be fought on the field 
of the natural sciences." 

{Oarfidd to B. A. Hinsdale.) 

Columbus, January 15, 1861. 
My heart and thoughts are full almost every moment with the terrible reality 
Of our country's condition. We have learned so long to look upon the convul- 



THE LIFE OF GEN". JAMES A. GARFIELD. 51 



sions of European States as things wholly impossible here, that the people are 
slow in coming to the belief that there may be any breaking up of our institu- 
tions, but stern, awful certainty is fastening upon the hearts of men, I do not 
Bee any way, outside a miracle of God, which can avoid civil war with all its at- 
tendant horrors. Peaceable dissolution is utterly impossible. Indeed, I cannot 
eay that I would wish it possible. To make the concessions demanded by the 
South would be hypocritical and sinful ; they would neither be obeyed nor re- 
epected. I am inclined to believe that the sin of slavery is one of which it may 
be said that without the shedding of blood there is no remission. All that is 
left us as a State, or say as a company of Northern States, is to arm and prepare 
to defend ourselves and the Federal C overnment. 1 believe the doom of slavery 
is drawing near. Let war come, and the slaves will get the vague notion that it 
is waged for them, and a magazine will be lighted whose explo-ion will shake 
the whole fabric of slavery. Even if all this happen, I cannot yet abandon the 
belief that one government will ruie this continent, and its people be one people. 

Meantime, what will be the influence of the times on individuals ? Your 
question is very interesting and euggestive. The doubt that hangs over the 
whole issue bears touching also. It may be the duty of our young men to join 
the army, or they may be drafted without their own consent. If neither of these 
things happen, there will be a period when old men and young will be electrified 
by the spirit of the times, and one result will be to make every individuality 
more marked and their opinions more decisive. I believe the times will he even 
more favorable than calm ones for the formation of strong and forcible char- 
acters. 

Just at this time (have you observed the fact ?) we have no man who has 
power to ride upon the storm and direct it. The hour has come, but not the man. 
The crisis will make many such. But I do not love to speculate on so painful a 
theme. ... I am chosen to respond to a toast on the Union at the State 
Printers' Festival here next Thursday evening. It is a sad and difficult theme at 
this time. 

iGarJidd to B. A. Hinsdale.) 

CoLxnviBus, February 16, 1861. 

Mr. Lincoln has come and gone. The nish of people to see him at every 
point on the route is astonishing. The reception here was plain and republican, 
but very impressive. He has been raising a respectable pair of dark-brown 
whiskers, which decidedly improve his looks, but no appendage can ever render 
him remarkable for beauty. On the whole, I am greatly pleased with him. He 
clearly ^hows his want of culture, and the marks of Western life ; but there is no 
touch of affectation in him, and he has a peculiar power of impressing you that 
he is frank, direct, and thoroughly honest. His remarkable good sense, simp! 
and condensed style of expression, and evident marks of indomitable will, give 
me great hopes for the country. And. after the long, dreary period of Buchanan's 
weakness and cowardly imbecility, the people will hail a strong and vigorous 
leader. 

I have never brought my mind to consent to the dissolution peaceably. I 
know it may be asked, la it not better to dissolve before war than after ? Bat i 



52 THE LIFE OF CxEN". JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

ask, Is it not better to fight before dissolution than after ? If the North and 
South cannot live in the Union without war, how can they live and expand as 
dissevered nations without it ? May it not be an economy of bloodshed to lell 
the South that disunion is war, and that the United States Government will pro- 
tect its property and execute its laws at all hazards ? 

I confess the great weight of the thought in your letter of the Plymouth and 
Jamestown ideas, and their vital and utter antagonism. This conflict may yet 
break the vase by the lustiness of its growth and strength, but the history of 
other nations gives me hope. Every government has periods when its strength and 
unity are tested. England has passed through the Wars of the Roses and the 
days of Cromwell. A monarchy is more easily overthrown than a republic, be- 
cause its sovereignty is concentrated, and a single blow, if it be powerful enough, 
will crush it. 

Burke, this is really a great time to live In, if any of us can only catch the 
cue of it. I am glad you write on these subjects, and you must blame yourself 
for having made me inflict on you the longest letter I have written to any one in 
more than a year. 

(Garfield to B. A. Hinsdale.) 

Cleveland, June 14, 1861. 
The Lieutenant-Colonelcy of the Twenty-fourth Regiment has been tendered 
to me, and the Governor urges me to accept. I am greatly perplexed on the 
question of duty. I shall decide by Monday next. 

{Garfield to B. A. Hinsdale.) 

Hiram, July 12, 1861. 
I hardly knew myself, till the trial came, how much of a struggle it would 
west me to give up going into the army. I found I had so fully interested myself 
in the "War that I hardly felt it possible for me not to be a part of the movement- 
But the consideration that there wt re so many who could fill the oflice tendered 
to me and would covet the place, more than could do my work here perhaps, that 
I could not but feel it would be to some extent a reckless disregard of the good 
of others to accept. If there had been a scarcity of volunteers I should have ac- 
cepted. The time may yet come when I shall feel it right and necessary to go ; 
but I thought, on the whole,, thai time had not yet come. 



CHAPTER VII. 

GARFIELD, THE CITIZEN SOLDIER. 

General Garfield's military record covers only a little over 
two years, but it was so full of peculiar incidents and achieve- 
ments that it might well form the sole theme of a volume by 
some such accomplished military student and writer as General 
J. Watts DePeyster — "Anchor" — whose thorough appreciation 
of Thomas would qualify him largely for writing of a man who 
was after Thomas's own heart, as a soldier and as a man. But 
the plan and limits of this book forbid anything like a detailed 
account of Garfield, the soldier. The truth is, that there is so 
much of him that the faithful biographer is dismayed at the im- 
possibility of even the most condensed review of his manifold 
and diverse achievements, in a single volume. For this reason 
I rejoice at the multiplicity of his biographers. There is 
material enough for each of them to work up into a valuable 
and interesting " Life." 

But Garfield was only a soldier, as fifteen hundred thousand 
other patriotic citizens were soldiers. He was a living, and the 
ablest, representative of the class whom Quincy Ward has so 
nobly typified in enduring bronze, in the " Seventh Regiment" 
monument that adorns Central Park— the citizen soldier of 
ability, culture, enlightened patriotism, and readiness for any 
duty required by the State ; who does not love nor follow fight- 
ing as a profession and for a livelihood, but who promptly 
adopts fighting as a duty, when the State can only be saved by 
the self-sacrifice of its citizens. Of this class Garfield was a great 
representative, in many respects. He was a splendid specimen 
of stalwart manhood ; he had wonderful capacity to master any 
new science ; he had won mastery over men and the art of com- 
manding them, through purely intellectual and moral methods ; 



54 THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

he had come to fill a large place of beneficent influence among 
his fellows, with widening opportunities daily opening before 
him in the parallel paths of duty and ambition, at home, and 
had much to sacrifice in seeking another field of action ; his 
very success as a teacher and as a public man had so put him 
under bonds that he could not lightly accept even a field officer's 
commission, without that cool, deliberate, solemn sense of over- 
powdering duty which ennobled and dignified the sacrifice he final- 
ly made, without a lingering qualm or compunction. At first he 
was inclined to refuse the commission offered him by Governor 
Dennison, who knew his powers and capacities, and had in- 
trusted him with an important mission to the Governor of 
Indiana, from whom he obtained the loan of 5000 stand of arms 
for the swarming crowds of Ohio volunteers. But it was inevi- 
table from the nature of the man that he should finally take the 
position where service involved the greatest danger and respon- 
sibility. 

He set about raising recruits for the Forty-second Ohio Vol- 
unteers among the men who had been inspired by his patriotic 
appeals ; among his students and constituents. It was mainly by 
his efforts that the regiment was filled up ; to a good degree, by 
"Disciples," whose patriotism was consecrated by religious 
zeal. He was first commissioned, in August, 1801, as Lieuten- 
ant-Colonel, and soon promoted to be Colonel, to the universal 
satisfaction of his men. On the 17th of December, 1861, he 
took his well-drilled regiment from Camp Chase to the front. 
In the short time allowed him he had gained as much military 
knowledge as most of our volunteer colonels would have been 
able to acquire in years. Throwing the whole energy of his in- 
comparable working powers into his new profession, he forgot 
everything but the one duty of transforming a mass of untrained 
patriots into a military machine. His success was as marvellous 
as it was natural. When he reported to General Buell, in Louis- 
ville, that able soldier and keen judge of men at once saw that 
his new reinforcement meant more than a fresh regiment of raw 
troops ; it was the acquisition of a great brain, inspired with 




COLONEL GARFIELD. 



56 THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

the highest moral courage and resolve, and sustained by the 
body of an athlete. The new colonel was not to be put on 
guard duty and subject to the drill and instructions of a West 
Point martinet ; he "vvas to have free scope for his resources in 
an independent command, and to be given a task not laid down 
in the books, nor taught at West Point, that of clearing out of 
Eastern Kentucky a large force of rebels, who outnumbered his 
own command, from a vast tract of wild, difficult, and naturally 
defensible country. Nor did Buell tell him how to do this 
tremendous job. He asked Garfield to make his own plans, and 
when they were made and reported Buell saw at a glance that 
he had not mistaken Garfield's genius for fighting. 

Let us take a brief glance at the big job which Buell in- 
trusted to a fresh volunteer colonel, both in the planning and 
in the execution. Humphrey Marshall, obese but able, had 
invaded Eastern Kentucky with 5000 men ; had fortified a 
natural stronghold at Paintville, and was overrunning the whole 
region with small detachments, recruiting for the rebel forces, 
discouraging, persecuting, and robbing Union men. The area 
of his operations was larger than that of Massachusetts ; inhab- 
ited by about 100,000 poor and ignorant white men and a few 
thousand negroes. Marshall was acting more as a politician 
than as a soldier. His scattered but effective operations were 
part of a general plan to wrest Kentucky from the Union. To 
Garfield was assigned the formidable task of defeating a pro- 
ject that would have been well-nigh fatal to the Union cause, 
had it succeeded. To accomplish it he had only four regi- 
ments of infantry and 600 cavalry— in all about 2500 men — di- 
vided by large stretches of mountain country that was harried 
by guerillas and full of disloyal people. He had to send com- 
munications to his scattered forces, to insure a co-operative 
movement, and then run the risk of being defeated in detail 
before his troops could be massed ; and, after all that was safely 
accomplished, he had to attack twice his own force, strongly 
intrenched in commanding positions." 

He succeeded in getting his dispatches carried to his sepa- 



THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 57 

rate forces, through his judgment in selecting a "native" 
scout John Jordan, whose adventures, expedients, and hair- 
breadth escapes in getting through the guerilla bands have 
been the subject of a most romantic story. After a nde of a 
hundred miles, the fearless and keen-witted scout took to Col- 
onel Cranor, at Paris, at midnight, an order to move his com- 
mand the 40th Ohio, 800 strong, to Prestonburg, and to trans- 
mit an order to Lieutenant-Colonel Woolford, at Stamford, to 
join him with three hundred cavalry. The scout encountered 
like perils on his return, but got safely to Garfield's tent, on the 
6th of January, at midnight. So far all went well. 

Garfield at once prepared to move his own column of 1400 
men on Marshall's intrenched 5000— known to be that number 
from an intercepted letter which Garfield had in his pocket, and 
prudently kept secret. Before this Garfield had sent false 
scouts into Marshall's camp, who made him believe that tlie 
Union force was many times its actual size. There were three 
roads to Marshall's position. Garfield manoeuvred so as to 
deceive the enemy as to his real line of attack, drove in Mar- 
shall's pickets along the river, and lured Marshall into detach- 
ing 1000 infantry and a battery to resist a supposed attack on 
Paintville. Then he is led to apprehend danger from another 
quarter, and transfers these troops to the western road. Two 
hours later the picket line on the centre is driven in, Mar- 
shall is confused, and Paintville abandoned. 

On the 8th of January Marshall learns from a spy that Cra- 
nor, with 3300 men (!), is within half a day's march to the 
westward. On this the statesman-soldier gets utterly discour- 
aged, breaks up his camp, abandons most of his supplies, and 
seeks safety in summary retreat. When Cranor's command ar- 
rives, it is utterly exhausted and unfit to move. But Garfield 
is-fullof fight, takes 1100 volunteers, 400 of them from Cranor's 
command,''and on the 9th moves toward Prestonburg, sending 
his cavalry to harass the retreating enemy. Near Prestonburg 
he hears of Marshall three miles further up the stream, and sends 
back to Lieutenant-Colonel Sheldon, at Paintville, to bring up 



68 THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A, GARFIELD. 

all the available men for a fight the next morning. All night 
long he is getting full knowledge of Marshall's positions and 
of the topography. Again he sends John Jordan into the 
enemy's camp, to learn his exact position. Breaking camp at 4 
A.M. he skirmishes aggressively and successfully till noon, when 
he reaches the main line, and then fiercely charges 5000 men, 
with twelve pieces of artillery, finely placed on a steep and 
rocky hill, with his 1100 heroes, all animated by his own spirit, 
but unprovided with a single cannon. It was a desperate hand- 
to-hand fight for five hours, with charges and repulses, and 
fresh charges, till at sunset the 5000 are about ready to swoop 
down on, envelop, and destroy the heroic 11 00, or what was 
left of them. It was a straining crisis for Garfield, who was 
praying for Cranor and Sheldon, as Wellington prayed for 
" night or Blucher.'" At the same time a rebel major, from a 
high elevation, saw the advancing blue-coats, and turned rap- 
idly and gave the word. In a moment MarshalFs demoralized 
force was whirling away, in full retreat, and Garfield was the 
victor in the most important small engagement of the war. 
Pursuit of the flying foe was instant, and the cheers of the 
" Boys in Blue'' made the valley ring. Soon the reports of 
the brief and brilliant campaign cheered loyal hearts that had 
not felt the solace of victory since the disaster at Big Bethel. 

Within ten days Thomas had routed ZoUikolfer, and Kentucky 
was saved to the Union. 

Buell had virtually made Garfield a Brigadier, by giving him 
a brigade to command, and had given him an independence of 
planning and execution such as many corps commanders never 
enjoyed. Lincoln gave him a Brigadier's commission, dated 
on the day of the fight I have briefly sketched. But the fight- 
ing was the smallest part of his achievement. (See note.) 

Note.— General Buell recognized both the brilliancy and importance of Gar- 
field's operations in a general order, which contained the following : 

" They have overcome formidable difficulties in the character of the country, 
the condition of the roads, and the inclemency of the season ; and, without ar- 
lilleiy, liave in several engagements, terminating in the battle of Middle Creek 
on the 10th inet. (January), driven the enemy from his intrenched positions and 



THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



59 



Having cleared out Humphrey Marshall's forces, Garfield 
moved his command to Piketon, one hundred and twenty miles 
above the mouth of the Big Sandy, from which place he cov- 
ered the whole region about with expeditions, breaking up 
rebel camps and perfecting his work. Finally, in that poor 
and wretched country, his supplies gave out, and as usual, 
taking care of the most important matter himself, he went to. 
the Ohio River for supplies, got them, seized a steamer, and 
loaded it But there was an unprecedented freshet, navigation 
was very perilous, and no captain or pilot could be induced to 
take charge of the boat. Garfield at once availed himself of 
his canal-boat experience, took charge of the boat, stood at the 
helm for forty out of forty-eight hours, piloted the steamer 
through an untried channel full of dangerous eddies and wild 
currents, and saved his command from starvation. 

In the middle of March he made the famous Pound Gap ex- 
pedition, which deserves a separate chapter. Briefly, Marshall 
had retired to this narrow pass in the Cumberland Mountains, 
easilv made impregnable, and a most admirable position from 
which to swoop down, with plundering parties, into Kentucky. 
No direct attack could have dislodged the 500 rebels left con- 
stantly on guard in the Gap, defended by breastworks and 
quartered in log huts. So Garfield made a sudden forced march 
of two days, reached the foot of the Gap at night, and the next 
mornino- made the rebels believe that he meant a direct attack, 
while he marched the most of his command through a narrow 
and tortuous mountain path, led by a faithful guide in a blind- 
ing snow storm, and suddenly pounced down on the astonished 
rebels in the rear of their fortifications. The surprise and the 
victory were complete ; the nest and stronghold of the plun- 
derers was captured, a large number of them were killed, 
wounded, or taken prisoners, and Marshall's campaign was 

^rced 1.. ,.cu into the ^-^^^^;:^::^:i ^iis r:^! ^J:^ 



60 THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

brought to a ridiculous close, whereupon Garfield marched back 
his command to Piketon, which he reached in four days from 
his departure, having taken his command about a hundred miles 
over a rough and difficult country. On his return he was ordered 
to report to Buell in person. The latter was moving to join 
Grant at Savannah, but Garfield overtook the army, was assign- 
ed to the command of a brigade, and took part in the second 
day's fight at Shiloh. He was in all the operations in front 
of Corinth, rebuilt and guarded the bridges on the Memphis 
and CharlestoQ Kailroad, and did his share in erecting fortifi- 
cations. He fell a victim to the malariousness of that region and 
was prostrated during the months of July and August. When 
he became convalescent he was ordered to Washington, where 
his then recognized ability was needed on the Fitz John Porter 
court-martial, the most impartially constituted, ablest, and 
fairest court of the sort ever organized nn this country. On its 
adjournment, in January, 1863, he was sent to Rosecrans, who 
was at first somewhat prejudiced against Garfield, regarding 
him as a " political preacher."" But a few days of intercourse 
revealed the absurdity of this apprehension ; Rosecrans saw the 
prodigious resources and frank manliness of Garfield, and made 
him " Chief of Staff," in the full European sense of the word, 
the first appointment of that sort made in our army. It was a 
high, responsible, difficult position, only second to that of the 
commander of the Army of the Cumberland. Such rapid pro- 
motion, won without pressure or infiuence, proceeding from 
the recognition of demonstrated qualities by two such able sol- 
diers as Buell and Rosecrans, the very opposites in temperament 
and natural predilections, shows that Garfield only needed time 
and opportunity to have become one of the great commanders 
of the Union Army. 

Acting as the counsellor, adviser and executive officer of 
Rosecrans, Garfield's vigorous nature found active employment 
in all the operations in Middle Tennessee. He was everywhere 
felt. He grew daily in the confidence of Rosecrans. The crown- 
ing epoch of his service as Chief of Staff came with the great 



THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD, 



61 



battle o£ Chickamauga. The test ot his moral courage and 
M viduality had come before. Roseera.s, with his passron for 
comp etiog all details, had delayed the advance ^vhich Stantoa 
waTimpariently urging. Finally Roseerans asked the wntten 
opinions of his seventeen generals as to the advisability of an 
advance. Every one was opposed to it. ^ut Garfield prepared 
a masterly paper, reviewing all the written opinions, analyzing 
hdr Sct'ions 'and answering them. His argument was irre- 
sUtible.' With sueh a paper on me Roseerans could no ong 
delay, and the army moved, but it was commanded, for the 
most part, by officers who felt mortified over the powerlessness 
rf their protests. One of them. General Crittenden, said to Gar- 
field, as the army began to move : 

Garfield resolutely took the responsibility that was thrown on 
him Then followed the fight for the objective point of the 
advance, Chickamauga. That the battle was not a great and 
decisive Union victory, the best military critics now agree, was 
due to the misunderstanding of a hastily written order to Gen- 
eral Wood, commanding the right wing. All the other orders 
were written by Garfield. This was written by Roseerans him- 
self Obeying this fatal order too literally, Wood opened a gap 
in our line which the rebels quickly saw and entered breaking 
the right from the centre and sweeping Roseerans and his chiet 
of staff with a mass of demoralized troops toward Chattanooga. 
Roseerans thought that all was lost. Brave to desperation so 
far as his own life was concerned, he was easily ' s ampeded 
Ihenhis command seemed broken. But Garfield's resources 
rose with the emergency. He implored Roseerans to let h m 
seek the centre and make it a rallying point from which o p^ 
vent utter rout, by well-directed fighting. His instinct told him 
that Thomas, commanding the centre, was holding his own 
with stubborn sturdmess. With the help of "The Rock of 



62 THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

Cliickamauf]fa," the proud name won by Thomas on that trying 
day, he couhl prevent defeat from becoming utter rout and 
destruction. Rosecrans bade Garfield God-speed and has- 
tened back to the river, to prepare for throwing up works at 
Chattanooga, behind which to save the swarming fugitives from 
the front. 

Garfield, with a few orderlies, set out on the perilous ride, 
which was far more momentous and trying than Phil. Sheridan's 
famous "Ride to Winchester." Through the forest and over hills ; 
not knowing where the rebel picket lines might be ; an orderly 
wounded near him and his own horse shot undei- him ; with chaos 
in his rear and the unknown in front — rode Garfield, carrying in 
his head all the plans of battle and the latest news from the 
doubled-up right. His arrival at Thomas's headquarters was 
like the reinforcement of a corps. He aided Thomas by his in- 
telligence and advice, and supplemented the old veteran's 
stanch ness by a fresh and aggressive enthusiam. He won nobly 
that day a Major-General's commission, and, wiiat he valued far 
more, the heart of " Old Pap Thomas." 

After Chickamauga, Garfield was sent to Washington, to 
reconcile the differences between Rosecrans and Stanton, and to 
state to Mr. Lincoln the condition and needs of the Army of the 
Cumberland, which he did with such clearness and vigor that 
Mr. Lincoln told him he bad never before understood so per- 
fectly the actual situation of any army in the field. In Decem- 
ber, 1863, Garfield, very reluctantly, resigned his commission, 
in order to perform the duties to which his constituents had 
called him, nearly fifteen months before. 

During all of his phenomenally active military career he had 
constantly kept up his literary culture. He took with him 
several small volumes of Harper's edition of the classics, and 
read them whenever he could steal a few moments of leisure. 
He read a little Latin every day. He rather settled down on 
Horace as his favorite, regarding him as " the most philosophic 
of the pagans." He also kept up his interest in all home mat- 
ters, wrote often to his wife and to his friend Hinsdale, and in 



THE LIFE OF GEN". JAMES A. GARFIELD. 63 

all ways did what he could to nourish his affections, to retain 
his culture, and to keep up a realizing sense of his citizenship, in 
the broadest and highest sense of that noble word. 

In his official report of operations in Middle Tennessee, General Rosecrans 
pays Garfield the following high but deserved tribute : 

''All my staff merited my warm approbation for ability, zeal, and demotion 
to duty : but lam sure they will not consider it invidious if J especially mention 
Brigadier-General Garfield-, ««^^^ active, prudent and sagacious. 1 fe£l much 
indebted to him for both c(m?isel and assistance in the administration of this 
a7'my. He possesses the energy and the instinct of a great commander.'" 

General Rosecrans has lately given his opinion of General Garfield to a 
California reporter. He said : " Garfield was a member of my military family 
during the early part of the war. When he came to my headquarters I must 
confess that 1 had a prejudice against him, as I understood he was a preacher 
who had gone into politics, and a man of that cast I was naturally opposed to. 
The more I saw of him the better I liked him, and finally I gave him. his choice 
of a brigade, or to become my chief of staff. He chose the latter. His views 
were large, and he was possessed of a thoroughly comprehensive mind. Late in 
the summer of 1863 he came to me one day, and said that he had been asked to 
accept the Republican nomination for Congress from the Ashtabula (O.) district, 
and asked my advice as to whether he ought to accept it, and whether he could 
do so honwably. 1 replied that I not only thought he could a.ccept it with honor, 
but tJiat I deemed it to be his duty to do so. ' The war is not yet over,' I said, 
' nor will it be for some time to come. There will be many questions arising in 
Congress which require not alone statesmanlike treatment, but the advice of 
men having an acquaintance with military affairs will be needful ; and for that 
and several other reasons, you would, I believe, do equally as good service to 
this country in Congress as in the field.' I consider Garfield head and shoulders 
above any of the men named before the convention, and far superior to any of 
the political managers upon the floor." 

{Garfield to B. A. Hinsdale.) 

MuRFREBSBOROUGH, Tenn., Feb. 16, 1863. 
My horses and part of my staff were delayed on the Cumberland by the 
attack on Fort Donelson, and did not reach here until a few days ago. I have 
been the guest of Gen. Rosecrans since my arrival, and I have never been more 
acquainted with the interior life of any man in the same length of time in my 
life. He wants me to stay with him as chief of staff instead of taking com- 
mand of a division. I am greatly in doubt which to choose. He is one of the 
few men in this war who enters upon all his duties with a deeply devout religious 
feeling, and looks to God as the disposer of the victory. His very able report of 
the late battle here ends with this fine sentence from the Catholic Church ser- 
vice, which he docs not quote with any cant or affectation : " Non nobis, Domi- 
ne, non nobis, sed tuo nomine da gloriam." 



64 THE LIFE OF GEN-. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

(Oarjield to B. A. Hinsdale.) 
Hbadquartebs, Department of thb Cumberland, 
Murfreesb; ROUGH, May 26, 1863. 

Tell all thoee copperhead students for me that, were I there in charge of the 
school, I would not only dishonorably dismiss them from the school, but, if 
they remained in the place and persisted in their cowardly treason, I would apply 
to Gen. Bamside to enforce General Oi'der No. 38 in their cases. , . . 

If these young traitors are in earnest they should go to the Southern Con- 
federacy, where they can receive full sympathy. Tell them all that I will furnish 
them passes through our lines, where they can join Vallandigham and their other 
friends till such time as they can destroy us and come back home as conquerors 
of their own people, or can learn wisdom and obedience. 

I know this apparently is a small matter, but it is only apparently small. We 
do not know what the developments of a month may bring forth, and, if such 
things be permitted at Hiram, they may anywhere. The Rebels catch up all 
such facts as sweet morsels of comfort, and every such influence lengthens th« 
war »nd adds to the bloodshed. 



CHAPTER Vin. 

GARFIELD IN CONGRESS. 

While it was clear to himself and to his military superiors 
that he had probably before him a brilliant military career, the 
Union men of the Nineteenth Congressional District of Ohio, 
without the slightest solicitation, effort, or co-operation on his 
part, nominated him to represent them in Congress. Such a 
nomination, from such a source, was the highest honor which any 
man, under the circumstances, could have received. It would 
have been a high compliment for any man, however long in the 
public service, to represent the constituency which had kept 
Joshua R. Giddings continuously in Congress for nearly a quarter 
of a century, while he was in the forefront of the fight against 
human slavery. To Garfield, then less than thirty-one years of 
age, it was an especially distinguished tribute. It came from 
those who knew him from the beginning— all his hardships, 
privations, struggles, conquests and characteristics. The '' old 
Nineteenth"— hardest of all districts to please— took him to its 
heart, draped him with the mantle of Giddings, and adopted 
him as its leader. 

Note -In considering Garfield's Congressional career, amid the compara- 
tively few home struggles it brought him, it is all important to realize what sort 
of constituency it has been that has nine times successively placed him in the 
seat of Joshua R. Giddings. To represent the tenement-house districts of New 
York for seventeen years is one thing. To represent a keenly intelligent, moral, 
and independent rural constituency in New England or New York for a long series 
of years is quite another thing. Such a constituency as the latter has honored 
Garfield'with its continuous verdicts of " Well done, good and faithful servant," 
with these es-ential differences, viz.: First, the -Western Reserve," in 
Northern Ohio, was settled by the manliest, most enterprising, vigorous and in- 
dependent sons of New England and New York. They were the " picked men 
of peoples," as were the original settlers of the Eastern States. Bluff old "Ben" 
Wade once tali ed about a characteristic " Western Reserve" constituent, who 



68 THE LIFE OF GEN^. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

And yet the acceptance of this proud position cost him many- 
severe struggles between contending convictions of duty. He 
would not have left the army under any consideration, had he 
not, like most of our soldiers and statesmen at that time, 
firmly believed that the rebellion would be virtually subdued 
within the fifteen months that would elapse between that time 
and the opening of the Thirty-eighth Congress, for which he 
was nominated. 

Even after he went into Congress, as the war was still 
doubtful, his impulse to resign and go back into the army was 
very strong. After the removal of Rosecrans, his former com- 
mander, General Thomas, who Was a dear friend of Garfield, 
was very anxious to have him come back into the army, and 
tendered him in a private letter the command of an army corps 
if he would go there. Thomas had become the head of the 
whole Army of the Cumberland, and with such an invitation 

*' after he had thought and praj'ed over a political question for twenty-four hours, 
was pretty sure to be right, and could not be moved." It is needless to say that 
this old supporter of Wade is equally true and faithful to Garfield. All that 
sort of men in "the Reserve''' are, so far as heard from. Then the " Western 
Keserve" has been the nursery of more free and independent political thinking 
and action than any other equal section of the Union. Political leaders are no- 
where else held to such strict accountability. Even Giddings, when he grew 
careless, lost his grip and was supplanted. The average "Westeiji Reserve" 
Republican makes his official representatives feel that the term " public servants" 
is full of meaning. He "keeps the run" of all they do and say. If they are 
scandalized he wants the object of scandal to clear his skirts completely. He 
has no use for tainted men. They must purge themselves wholly, or go back to 
private life. On the whole, the "Western Reserve" is a section by itself, and 
seems to deserve to be more generally understood, as to its geographical limits. 
For this reason 1 have had the accompanying map prepared. In that region of 
universal intelligence, high morality, intense political activity and searching in- 
quiry, James A. Gai-field was bom, and has always had his residence. In the 
most critical part of that region is his Congressional district, which completely 
and thoroughly overhauled all the scandals that now survive on the lips of the in- 
telligently malicious and in the darkened brains of the ignorant. His constit- 
uents tried him and pronounced the verdict, "Not guilty." That verdict has 
been repeated again and again, with increasing emphasis, and there is hardly an 
intelligent and honest boy in the whole *' Reserve" who would not resent the 
slightest imputation on the man whom the " Reserve" almost idolizes and trusts 
to the uttermost, James A. Garfield. 



THE LIFE OF GEN". JAMES A. GARFIELD. 69 

Garfield's impulse to go back was almost irresistible. But on 
going to Mr. Lincoln with the matter, the President made a 
personal point with him. " In the first place," said he, " the 
Republican majority in Congress is very small, and there is 
great doubt whether or not we can carry our measures ; and in 
the next place, we are greatly lacking in men of military ex- 
perience in the House to regulate the legislation about the 
army." 

Fresh from active service in the army, whose duties, dangers, 
excitements and friendships he left with many pangs of sincer- 
est and manliest regret. General Garfield began what proved to 
be a long career of honorable, industrious, and patriotic service 
of his country in Congress, at the opening of the Winter 
session, in 1863. 

In looking over the debates and proceedings in the Congress 
sional Olobe for that important session we seem to be reading 
ancient history, so many men, then prominent and powerful in 
one or the other branch of Congress, have gone to join the silent 
majority. If we measure time by great national developments, 
changes, and revolutions, more than two ordinary generations 
have passed while General Garfield, in the House, has been 
gaining the few frosted hairs that tell the story of constant 
work, amid great and trying energies. 

In order that younger readers may bring to mind the sur- 
roundings of the young and brilliant Major-Genera 1, as he first 
undertook the duties of statesmanship in the national councils, 
it may be well to revive, by the mention of their names, some 
at least of the strong men who left tlieir impress on the legisla- 
tion of the country. 

Beginning with the Senate, and in the north-eastern corner 
of the Republic, Maine was strongly represented by William 
Pitt Fessenden and Lot M. Morrill — the former preternaturally 
acute and dialectically vigorous ; the latter sound, broad, strong, 
and sometimes eloquent. The humorist of the Senate, John P. 
Hale, of New Hampshire, was somewhat in his decadence. 
Vermont, fortunate, because judicious and faithful, in her 



70 THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

choice of Senators, was represented by Solomon Foot and Jacob 
Collamer, both veterans, but both vigorous and formidable, 
especially on questions of law and of the Constitution. Charles 
Sumner and Henry Wilson were great powers, but in different 
ways, the former in debate, the latter in upholding the army 
as chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs. Anthony 
was even then Rhode Island's elegant and scholarly represen- 
tative in tlie Senate, as he has been ever since. James Dixon 
and La Fayette S. Foster worthily upheld the influence of Con- 
necticut. The ablest Southern Senator was Reverdy Johnson, of 
Maryland, who under Mr. Seward's instructions afterward 
laid the foundations for the Treaty of Washington, and never 
got due credit therefor. New York was reprcsen ted by two 
non-speech-making Senators — War Governor E. D. Morgan, 
who did more to sustain the war in the Senate than many more 
talkative members, and the amiable and learned Judge Ira D. 
Harris. Cowan and Buckalew, of Pennsylvania, were great 
powers in their day, but are forgotten. Ohio was strongly 
represented by the intense and combative individuality of 
" Ben" Wade, and by John Sherman, already a veteran in the 
succession of honors won in the House and added to in the 
Senate ; as courageous as his great soldier brother and almost as 
ready in debate as Fessenden. From the West were such 
strong Senators as the venerable but fearless Henry S. Lane, 
of Indiana ; Zachariah Chandler, of Michigan ; Trumbull, of 
Illinois ; Howe and Doolittle, of Wisconsin ; Ramsey, of Min- 
nesota, and Grimes, of Iowa. Many of these men belonged to 
the past, and did not know it. Some were the predestined 
victims of party divisions, and did not dream of their fate. 

The House had in it, naturally, far more of the Present and 
the Future. Its then most fortunate and promising member was 
Schuyler Colfax, the universally popular Speaker. But there 
were three young members who were destined to a more lasting 
prominence. The senior of these, who had enjoyed previous 
service in the House, was Roscoe Conkling, already recognized 
t)y Congress and the country as a magnificent and convincing 



THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 71 

speaker. The other two of the triumvirate that was never 
formed were Jr.mcs G. Blaine and James A. Garfield. Only a 
year the senior of Garfield, Blaine was about to begin a career 
as brilliant as that of Henry Clay and the acquisition of a 
popularity unique in our political history. But in this Congress 
there were many members whose power was far greater than 
that of either of the trio, who may yet be as much compared as 
Clay, Webster, and Calhoun were in former days. In the first 
place there was Elihu B. Washburne, " the watch-dog of the 
treasury," the "father of the House"— courageous, practical, 
direct, and aggressive. Then there was Thaddeus Stevens, who 
was one of the very few men capable of driving his party asso- 
ciates—a character as unique as and far stronger than John 
Randolph ; General Robert C. Schenck, fresh from the army, 
but a veteran in Congress, one of the ablest of practical states- 
men ; ex-Governor Boutwell, of Massachusetts ; ex-Governor 
Fenton, of New York, a very influential member, especially on 
financial questions ; Henry Winter Davis, the brilliant orator, 
of Maryland ; Wm. B. Allison, since one of the soundest and 
most useful of Iowa's Senators ; Henry L. Dawes, who fairly 
earned his promotion to the Senate, but who accomplished so 
much in the House that his best friends regret the transfer ; 
John A. Bingham, one of the most famous speakers of his 
time ; James E. English, of Connecticut, who did valiant and 
patriotic service as a War Democrat ; George H. Pendleton, now 
Senator from Ohio and a most accomplished statesman, even in 
his early service in the House ; Henry G. Stebbius, who was to 
make a speech sustaining Mr. Chase's financial policy that was 
unequalled for its salutary effect on public opinion ; Samuel J. 
Randall, now Speaker ; John A. Griswold, who was cheated 
out of the Governorship of New York by Tammany frauds ; 
William Windom, one of the silent members who has grown 
steadily in power ; James F. Wilson, who was destined to de- 
cline three successive offers of Cabinet positions by President 
Grant ; Daniel W. Voorhees,of Indiana, now Senator ; John A. 
K-asson, of Iowa, long- our minister to Austria ; Theodore M. 



72 THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

Pomeroy, of New York, afterward acting Speaker for a briei 
period ; Wm. R. Morrison, of Illinois, since a Democratic can- 
didate for the Presidency ; Wm. S. Holman and George W. 
Julian, of Indiana, both able men, and Fernando Wood — these 
n^ere all prominent members of the House. It will be seen that 
the House -was a more trying arena for a young member like 
Garfield than the Senate would have been ; for the contests of 
the former— unsubdued and unmitigated by " the courtesy of 
the Senate" — were conducted by as ready and able a corps of 
debaters as ever sat in that body. 

In looking over the debates of the opening session of thia 
Congress the subjects of discussion and the arguments seem as 
remote from the present as the reports of the House of Com- 
mons in the days preceding the repeal of the Corn Laws would 
appear to the Englishman of the present. It is interesting to 
see in what spirit the representative of " the boys at the front," 
as Garfield was regarded by his associates, met the various and 
exciting questions which were growing out of the rebellion and 
of the war for its suppression. Naturally enough, we find that 
the first motion made by General Garfield in the House, on the 
13th of January, 1864, was one asking unanimous consent for a 
resolution authorizing the printing of ten thousand extra copies 
of the official reports of liis former chief, IMajor-General Rose- 
crans. On the next day, for the first time he took part in the 
debates, although his experience as State Senator in Ohio had 
been a sufficient preparation for the ordinary exigencies of de- 
bate and parliamentary discussion in the House. But neither 
at the beginning nor at any period during the whole of his 
career in Congress has he ever shown the slightest disposition 
to create artificial occasions for the display of speech-making in 
the Globe and Record reports. This particular debate, which 
took place on the 14th of January, was on a subject which 
naturally interested a man who, in the midst of active service 
in the field, had been revolving the great problems of dealing 
with the rebellion and rebels. His antagonist was one of the 
most formidable and readiest in the House, no less than Jilr. 



THE LIFE OF GEJf. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 73 

Samuel S. Cox, then hailing from Ohio, and inclined to mitigate 
the pains and penalties of rebellion as much as possible. The 
discussion was on a joint resolution in regard to the seizure and 
confiscation of the property of rebels. After considerable spar- 
ring, Mr. Cox asked General Garfield if he would break the 
Constitution to aggravate the punishment of the traitor, or to 
punish the innocent children of the rebels, to which artful 
question Garfield replied with his usual frank and manly in- 
genuousness and sincerity. Said he : "I would not break the 
Constitution at all, unless it should become necessary to over- 
leap its barriers to save the Government and the Union." 
'' But," added he, "I do not see that in this bill we do break 
the Constitution ;" and then said, in language which gives the 
key-note of his whole Congressional career up to the close of 
the last session, " If the gentleman can show me that it over- 
leaps the Constitution I will vote against it with him, even 
though every member of my party votes for it ; that makes no 
difference to me." 

General Garfield was not in haste to make what is called a 
" set speech." It required an actual occasion to call him out, 
as was the case when he spoke at some length, on the 31st of 
March, 1864. 

The practical nature of his mind, his constitutional antago- 
nism to corporate monopolies that neither serve the public nor 
allow that service to be performed by others, and his ability in 
the handling of financial questions, are well shown in this 
maiden speech. The very subject of the speech precluded the 
idea of a display of the peculiar sort of sentimentality, or 
patriotic verbiage, which is the staple of most speeches made 
" for Buncombe." It was directed against the impudence, in- 
solence, and inefficiency of a corporation which, in its time, 
known as the Camden and Amboy monopoly, was the occasion 
of more well-directed imprecations than any other corporation 
of its size that ever existed. It was then proposed to establish 
a postal railroad route across the State of New Jersey, which 
was at that time generally known as the " State of Camden and 



74 THE LIFE OF GEK. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

Amboy." About that time Governor Joel Parker had issued 
an astounding proclamation affirming the right of New Jersey 
as a " sovereign State" to protect and defend her " sovereign- 
ty," which, in this connection, meant the sovereignty of Cam- 
den and Amboy, as superior to that of the United States, so far 
as any efforts on the part of the United States to facilitate and 
cheapen the transmission of the mails, the troops and the mili- 
tary supplies of the Government, were concerned. In reply to 
Governor Parker's queer application of the phrase, " sovereign 
State," General Garfield remarked that, '" Mr. Coleridge some- 
where says that abstract definitions have done more harm in 
the world than plague and famine and war. I believe it ! I 
believe that no man will ever be able to chronicle all the evils 
that have resulted to this nation from the abuse of the W'Ords 
' sovereign ' and ' sovereignty.' " Then he went on specifying 
the attributes of sovereignty, and said, among other things, 
" Sovereignty has the right to put ships on the ocean and the 
high seas. Should a ship set sail under the authority of New 
Jersey : it would be seized as a smuggler, forfeited and sold. 
Sovereignty has a flag, but, thank God, New Jersey has no 
flag ; Ohio has no flag. No loyal State fights under the ' Lone 
Star,' the 'Rattlesnake,' or the 'Palmetto Tree;' no loyal 
State of this Union has any flag but the banner of beauty and 
glory, the flag of the Union. These are the indispensable ele- 
ments of sovereignty. New Jersey has not one of them." In 
reply to the remark that New Jersey was a loyal State, and had 
sent her citizens into the army, he said : " They are not fight- 
ing for New Jersey, but for the Union, and when it is once re- 
stored, I don't believe these men will fight for the Camden and 
Amboy monopoly. Their hearts have been enlarged, and there 
are patriotic men of New Jersey, in the army and at home, who 
are groaning under this tyrannical monopoly, and they come 
here and ask us to strike off the shackles that bind them, and 
I hold it to be the high right and duty of this body to strike off 
their fetters and let them go free." 

On the 2Gth of April, after the passage of several bills mak- 



THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 75 

incr large ailroad ""grants, Mr. Washburne moved an adjourn- 
ment, but General Garfield, in a very suggestive speech of three 
lines, contributed materially to the discussion by remarking 
that " As there must be very little public land left after what 
we have done to-night, I hope the gentlemen will be allowed to 
go through with it." 

The great and almost appalling difficulty m attempting to 
give even a fair notion of the scope and nature of Garfield's 
work in the Thirty-eighth as in all the succeeding Congresses 
arises from the wonderful versatility, activity, industry, and 
ability of the man. The more I have attempted to grasp and 
group the salient features of his immense work, the more the 
work has grown on me. It is impossible, within the limits of 
even half a dozen volumes, to reproduce with any fulness his 
Cono-ressional achievements. Take, for instance, a bare cata- 
logue of his speeches or remarks from the index of the 
Congressional Olohe for the first session of the Thirty-eighth 
Con-ress-186a to 1865-viz. : "Deficiency bill," "Bill to 
continue bounties," "Revenue bill," "Confiscation," " Cori- 
scription bill," " Bill to revive grade of Lieutenant-Gencral, 
"Resolution of thanks to General Thomas," " Sale of surplus 
gold" "Relating to enlistments in the Southern States," 
*' Bill to drop unemployed general officers," " New Jersey rail- 
road bill," " Currency bill," " The state of the Union, in reply 
to Mr Lono-/' " The expulsion of Mr. Long," " A correspond- 
encewith the Rebels," "Revenue bill (No. 405)," "The in- 
quiry in relation to the Treasury Department," "The Army 
appropriation bill," " Pennsylvania war claims," "The bank 
ruptbill," "Repeal of fugitive slave law," "Bill to provide 
for claims for rebellion losses. " 

In subsequent Congresses the list of important subjects and 
bills discussed by Garfield grew much larger. It will be seen 
that it is only practicable to make anything like a fair present- 
ation of what he did and said by selecting a few of the great 
subjects of debate, and grouping under separate heads the facts 
and the utterances which show the continuous development of 



70 THE LIFE OF GEX. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

his thinking and policy. And as it is Garfield's peculiar dis- 
tinction that, although he came from the army into Congress, 
and easily obtained prominence and leadership in discussing 
military questions and those growing out of tlie war, he early 
l)egan to give liis best energies to the much more difficult and 
less sensational financial questions, I shall give the main part of 
the limited space allowed for reviewing his Congressional 
activities to the development of Ins views on the Currency 
question and the Tariff question. It wnll be seen that for over 
half a generation lie has been fitting himself to be a wise leader 
of the American people, as regards two of the great and difficult 
problems which are now^ of all-commanding importance. 

{Garfield to B. A. Hinsdale.) 

Washington, December 11, 1SG5. 

We have begun, ns you have seen, and currents are beginning to develop 
llieir direction and strenglli only feebly as" yet. We appear to have a very robust 
House, and indications thus far show it to be a very sound one. The message is 
much better than we expected, and I have hoped that we s^hall be able to work 
with the President. He sent for me day before yesterday, and we had a free con- 
versation. I gave him the views of the earnest men North as I understand thcm^, 
and we tried to look over the whole field of the difficulties before us. 

'i'hey are indeed many and formidable. Siimner and Boutwell and some 
more of that class are full of alarm ; less, however, than when they first came. 
Some foolish men among us are all the while bristling up for fight, and seem to 
be anxious to make a ru[)ture with Johnson. I think we should assume that he 
is with us, treat him kindly, without suspicion, and go on in a firm, calmly con- 
sidered course, leaving him to make the breach with the party if any is made. I 
doubt if he would do it under such circumstances. The caucus resolution of 
Thad. Stevens was bad in some of its features. It was rushed through before 
the caucus was fully assembled, and, while it expresses the sentiment of the 
House in its main propositions, there are some points designed to antagonize 
with the President. It still lies over in the Senate, where it will be modified, if 
it passes at all. 

(Garjkld to I?. A. Hinsdale.) 

Washington, January 11, 1868. 

This lengthy statement shows you why I passed over a day without writing 
you the usual letter. Having passed the time, I concluded to wait for your let- 
ter and write in response. 

I hope we shall not allow ourselves to get in the hahit of omitting or post- 
poning these New Year's letters : for they not only keep us advised of the 
progress, fortune, or misfortune of each other, but they link us to our best 
selves, and help us measure our own tendencies better than we can do in almost 
any other way. . . , 



THE LIFE OF GEN, JAMES A. GARFIELD. 77 



The longer I continue in Congress, the more nnmerons and difficult arothe 
duties that press upon me. These increase in proportion to the increase of my 
circle of acquaintance, and, T suppose, iucreasc my influence. I have Bome- 
times almost despaired of keeping up with the work. The result is I get hut 
little time for careful study; still, I am doing some reading, and am making 
general advance in some studies. 

I have accepted an invitation from the Social Science Association of Boston 
to prepare a paper on some financial theme at its next annual meeting in Febru- 
ary at Albany, though I am beginning to fear I shall not get the time to do all I 
desire in the way of preparation. I must do something to keep my thoughts 
fresh and growing. I dread nothing so much as falling into a rut and feeling 
myself becoming a fossil. . , . 

We are boarding this winter, and, for that reason, not so pleasantly situated 
as we have been hitherto. We have rooms in one house and board in another. 

( Garfield to A. B. Hinsdale. ) 

Washington, D. C, January 1, 1867. 

I am less satisfied with the present aspect of public affairs than I have been 
for a long tiino. I find that many of the points and iOctrines, both in general 
politics and finance, which I believe in and desire to see prevail are meeting with 
more opposition than heretofore, and are in imminent danger of being overborne 
by popular clamor and political passion. 

In reference to reconstruction I feel that if the Southern States should adopt 
the Constitutional Amendments within a reasonable time, we are literally bound 
to admit them to representation ; if they reject it, then I am in favor of striking 
for impartial suffrage, though I see that such a course is beset with grave 
dangers. 

Now Congress seems determined to rush forward without waiting even for 
the action of the Southern States, thus giving the South the impression, and our 
political enemies at home a pretext for saying that we were not in good faith 
when we offered the Constitutional Amendments. . . . 

Really there seems to be a fear on the part of many of our friends that they 
may do some absurdly extravagant thing to prove their radicalism. I am trying 
to do two things : dare to be a radical and not be a fool, which, if I may judge 
by the exhibitions around me, is a matter of no small difficulty. 

I wish the South would adopt the Constitutional Amendments soon and in 
good temper. Perhaps they will. . . . 

Next, the Supreme Court has decided the case I argued last winter, and the 
papers are insanely calling for the abolition of the court. . . . 

In reference to finance. I believe that the great remedy for our ills is an 
early return to specie payments, which can only be effected by the contraction of 
our paper currency. There is a huge clamor against both and in favor of ex- 
'pansion. 

You know my views on the tariff. I am equally assaulted by the free traders 
and by the extreme tariff men. There is passion enough in the country to run 
a steam-engine in every village, and a spirit of proscription which keeps pace 
with the passion. My own course is chosen and it is quite probable it will throw 
me out of public life. 



CHAPTER IX. 



THE CURRENCY QUESTION. 



There can be no better illustration of Garfield's character, 
nor of his peculiar ability to deal with great and difficult prac- 
tical questions, than is tdlorded by his speeches on the various 
phases of the currency question. In this respect his record In 
many important features, is absolutely unique. He had no 
special instructions from his constituents to adopt the bold line 
of policy which he assumed so early in his Congressional career, 
while there were many members whose constituencies held such 
decided opinions, on one side or the other of the financial 
issues, that their election to Congress was a sufficient instruc- 
tion and guide, for they were merely the mouthpieces of their 
constituents. But General Garfield, who rapidly came to be 
regarded as the representative, not merely of his own district, 
but of his State, was not elected originally on any such issue, 
and, as its proportions developed growing importance and gave 
rise to moie exciting agitations, his ow^n State was, at first, in- 
clined to yield to the specious doctrines that, at one time or 
another, have prevailed in every civilized country. He could 
easily have evaded this issue, at the outset at least, if it had 
been in his nature to dodge any responsibility or duty. Instead 
of this, with a perfect intuition of the surpassing magnitude of 
the currency question, he began to prepare himself for its intel- 
ligent comprehension and discussion, by a course of study and 
investigation which very few of our statesmen have given to it. 
He exhausted all the histories of the various experiments of 
dealing with public debts and of furnishing paper currency 
that had been made in this country ; he followed the investiga- 
tion back into English history, studying all the text-books ; he 
mastered the French language, so as to be able to read the un- 



THE LIFE OF GEX. JAMES A. GAKFIELD. 79 

translated French treatises on political economy and the 
currency, and sought in all directions, from the experience of 
all countries, whatever light or information could aid him in 
dealing with the financial situation in which we were left at the 
close of the war. Thus thoroughly grounded in knowledge, 
armed with authorities in defence of sound principles and 2jrac- 
tices, and inspired with an abiding horror of the countless evils 
brought on all classes of society by false systems of finance, he 
Ivas ready to take the side of the currency question which, with 
■iuch knowledge and such cquii^ment, a man whose whole 
•lature revolted at time-serving and cowardly expedients, and 
from dishonesty and injustice in every form, woukl naturally 
take. Through whatever mutations of public sentiment oi: 
these questions convulsed the i)eople of his State ; through th( 
darkest eras in our financial history ; under whatever pressure, 
and amid whatever suggestions of immediate party expedi- 
ency, Garfield maintained a course so ingenuous, courageous and 
consistent in principle, that his most malign enemy might )e 
safely challenged to explore his record at every point. 

The speech which he made on the 16th of March, 186G, on 
the public debt and specie payments, covers substantially the 
whole ground of the great argument that was only concluded — 
if it is concluded — by the grand success of the Secretary of the 
Treasury in safely and easily accomplishing specie payments, 
after a protracted and ceaseless struggle, in which his sagacity, 
his tact, and his persistence have earned for him the right to be 
named and honored alongside of Washington's immortal 
Secretary, Alexander Hamilton. The speech was not a long 
one, but it was one that reached dowm to the foundations of a 
wise and honest system of finance. It was a good beginning 
for the series of arguments with which, from time to time, in 
Congress and out of Congress, General Garfield was always 
ready to meet every species, phase, and form of false systems of 
finance. The time of the delivery of this speech is important 
to be considered. It was long before the Republican Party had 
been brought — largely through the heroic firmness of two sue- 



80 THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

cessive Presidents — Grant and Hayes — into substantial unity on 
the main features of the currency question. It is easy enough 
now for Republican statesmen to advocate what Garfield so 
courageously advocated fourteen years ago in time, and a gene- 
ration ago in events. His speech was a strong plea for confer- 
ring upon the Secretary of the Treasury the advantage of that 
large discretion in funding the debt which subsequent experi- 
ence has proved to be absolutely essential to the restoration of 
a sound financial system. It was, also, not only a courageous 
demand for an immediate adoption of a settled policy of return 
to specie payments, but a bold arraignment of the folly of con- 
tinuing the stimulus of inflation, and a bold argument for con- 
tracting an irredeemable currency, so as to prepare the way for 
practical resumption. It was a ])lain, business-like, earnest 
sjieech, based on the highest financial authorities, illustrated by 
the financial disorders of the country, and abounding in epi- 
grammatic exposure of the fallacies that were destined to yield 
a terrible fruitage of evil, because there were not more Garfields 
in Congress. 

The House was not ready to support the judicious bill which 
Garfield advocated, and it was lost by a small majority, when 
he changed his vote so as to enable him to move to reconsider, 
which motion was sustained by the House, on the 19th, by 
a vote of 81 to 67, but before moving the previous question he 
made a few brief remarks, in which he took and returned the 
shots of such experienced and able debaters as Thaddeus 
Stevens, Judge Kelley and others, and strenuously maintained 
that the honest and heroic jDolicy was the only safe, and would 
be the only successful, one to pursue. In reply to Judge 
Kelley, Garfield said, and he knew what he was saying : 
" There is no leading financier, no statesman now living, or one 
who has lived within the last half century, in whose opinions 
the gentleman can find any support. They all declare, as the 
Secretary of the Treasury declares, that the only honest basis of 
value is a currency redeemable in specie at the will of the 
holder. I am an advocate of paper money, but that paper 



THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 81 

money must represent what it professes en its face. I do not 
wish to hold in my hands the printed lies of the Government ; 
I want its promise to pay, signed by the high ofRccrs of the 
Government, sacredly kept in the exact meaning of the words 
of the promise. Let us not continue to practise this conjuror's 
art, by which sixty cents shall discharge a debt of one hundred 
cents. I do not want industry to be everywhere thus crippled 
and wounded, and its wounds plastered over with legally- 
authorized lies." 

In concluding, he spoke with impassioned and prophetic 
earnestness, and what he said may well go into his record, for 
the circumstances under which, and the time in which, he 
spoke, are essential eljements in considering the character and 
statesmanship of the speaker. Said he : 

" "We leave it to the House to decide which alternative it will 
choose. Choose the one, and you float away into an unknown 
sea of paper money that shall know no decrease until you take 
just such a measure as is now proposed to bring us back to 
solid values. Delay the measure, and it will cost the country 
dear. Adopt it now, and with a little d3pression in business 
and a little stringency in the money market, the worst will be 
over, and we shall have reached the solid earth. Sooner or 
later such a measure must be adopted. Go on as you are now 
going on, and a financial crisis worse than that of 1837 will 
bring us to the bottom. I for one am not willing that my name 
shall be linked to the fate of a paper currency. I believe that 
any party which commits itself to paper money will go down 
amid the general disaster, covered with the curses of a ruined 
people. 

" Mr. Speaker, I remember that on the monument of Queen 
Elizabeth, where her glories were recited and her honors 
summed up, among the last and the highest, recorded as the 
climax of her honors, was this — that she had restored the money 
of her kingdom to its just value. And when this House shall 
have done its work, when it shall have brought back values to 
their proper standard, it will deserve a monument." 

A careful examination of Garfield's entire record on the 
financial issues, and of the speeches made thereon both in and 
out of Congress, will be found interesting to that large class of 



82 THE LIFE OF GEX. JAMES A. GARFIELP. 

practical business men who believe that it is of the utmost im- 
portance to have in the White House for the next four years an 
Executive as sound and judicious and immovable by clamors as 
we have had there for nearly four years. 

Garfield did not wait for the development of public opinion, 
or even Republican opinion, in favor of the financial principles 
which have been found to be wise and essential, by the experi- 
ence of all civilized countries. As we have seen, he took early 
ground on these questions, a ground broad enough on which to 
meet all the changing phases of discussion which have agitated 
the country. Faithful, conscientious, well-directed study had 
foitified liis vigorous mind for the long struggle in which he 
was to take so conspicuous a part. The breadth of his views, 
his courageous enunciation of them, and his clear percejotion of 
the situation, are illustrated in more speeches than can even be 
referred to within the limits of this volume ; but a cursory view 
of a few of these speeches will sufficiently develop the results 
of Garfield's stalwart thinking on these subjects. In a speech 
which he delivered in the House on the 15th of May, 18G8, he 
showed, to begin with, his appreciation of the fact that war 
times had gone, and that the more difficult problems of finance 
were looming up as the tests of the wisdom and patriotism of 
Congress and the people. No man realized these difficulties 
earlier or more thoroughly than he did, or how they should be 
met. Said he, at the outset of this speech : 

" All the questions which spring out of the public debt, such 
as loans, bonds, tarifl's, internal taxation, banking and currency, 
present greater difficulties than usually come within the scope 
of American politics. They cannot be settled by force of num- 
bers nor carried by assault, as an army storms the works of an 
enemy. Patient examination of facts, careful study of princi- 
ples which do not always appear on the surface, and which in- 
*volve the most difficult problems of political economy, are the 
weapons of this warfare. No sentiment of national pride 
should make us unmindful of the fact that we have less experi- 
ence in this direction than any other civilized nation. If this 
fact is not creditable to our intellectual reputation, it at least 
affords a proof that our people have not hitherto been cmshed 



THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



83 



under the burdens of taxation We must consent o b« ms luct- 
ed by the experience of other nations, and be wilhng to 
approach these questions, not ^vith the dogmatism of teachers, 
but as seekers after truth." 

Whereupon he Avent into a review of the financial troubles 
that were causing such distress in Great Britain and throughout 
pretty much the whole Continent of Europe, as well as in the 
United States These difficulties he did not attribute to chance ; 
that was not the nature or training of his naturally inductive 
and logical mind He showed why and how tjie industrial 
revolution caused by the return of two million of able-bodied 
men, discharged from the Army and Navy to active production 
and the enormous inflation of currency and piices, had produced 
widespread distress, discontent and disaster. As usual, in dis- 
cussing such questions, he availed himself of thorough previous 
preparation, and made a startling exhibit from a table prepared 
at his request, a year before, by Mr. Edward Young, in the rev- 
enue service, exhibiting a comparison of wholesale prices at New 
York in December, 1865, and December 1866. The average 
decline in this period in the prices of all commodities was at 
least 10 per cent, and the distress which followed was inevi- 
table. He then proceeded to illustrate the functions of cur- 
rencv and the unavoidable dangers and disturbances caused by 
an irredeemable paper currency, showed the relation of currency 
to prices, and demonstrated that an inflated currency was the 
sorest sort of taxation, whose chief burden fell on laboring 
men He went over the history of every panic in the country, 
and showed the direct relation between the increase or decrease 
of the currency and the financial condition of the country. His 
illustrations of the nature and effect of the currency not regu- 
lated in its volume by supply and demand, and by constant 
convertibility into coin, were such as could be easily understood 
V any ordinary laborer. Said he : - The dollar is the gauge 
that measures every blow of the axe, every swing of the scythe, 
every stroke of the hammer, every fagot that blazes on the 
poor man's hearth, every fabric that clothes his children, every 



84 THE LIFE OF GEN. JA3JES A. GARFIELD. 

mouthful that feeds their huuger. The word dollar is a sub- 
stantive word, the fundamental condition of every contract, of 
every sale, of every payment, whetlier from the national treasury 
or from the stand of the apple-woman in the street. Now, 
what is our situation ? There has been no day since the 25th 
of February, 18G2, when any man could tell what would be the 
value of our legal currency dollar the next month or the next 
i^.ay. Since that day we have substituted for a dollar the 
printed promise of the Government to pay a dolUir ; that 
promise we have broken. We have suspended payment, and 
have, by law, compelled the citizen to receive dishonored paper 
instead of money." 

He did not attempt to disguise or mitigate the stem fact that 
the transition from irredeemable paper to a currency worth its 
face in coin woukl be very trying and hard to bear. Consider 
the fact that at the time this speech was delivered the most 
promising and popular Democratic statesman from Ohio, and 
who had been the candidate of his party for the office of Vice- 
President, Mr. George IT. Pendleton, was moving his own 
party, and thousands of discontented Pepublicans who wanted 
Congress to "make money easy," with his seductive proposi- 
tion to cancel with greenbacks $1,500,000,000 of five-twenty 
bonds. This was the measure, under the stress of whose prob- 
able popularity Mr. Pendleton was expecting the Presidential 
nomination by his party. At this very time Garfield had the 
courage, in his place in Congress, to utter these wholesome 
words, which had nothing in them of immediate promise of 
relief to the business troubles of his constituents. Said he : 

" The simple fact in the case is that Congress went resolutely 
and almost unanimously forward in the policy of gradual re- 
sumption of specie payments and a return to the old standard 
of values, until the pressure of falling prices and hard times 
began to be felt ; and now many are shrinking from the good 
work they have undertaken, are turning back from the path 
they so worthily resolved to pursue, and are asking Congress to 
plunge the nation deeper than ever into the abyss from which 
it has been struggling so earnestly to escape. Did any reflect- 



THE LIFE OF GEX. JA.MES A. GARFIELD. 85 

ing man suppose it possible for the country to return from the 
high prices, the enormous expansion of business, debt, and 
speculation occasioned by the war, without much depression 
and temporary distress ? The wit of man has never devised a 
method by whicli the vast commercial and industrial interests 
of a nation can suffer tlie change from peace to war, and from 
yviiv back to peace, witliout hardship and loss. The homely old 
maxim, ' What goes up must come down,' applies to our situa- 
tion with peculiar force. The ' coming down ' is inevitable. 
Congress can only break the fall and mitigate its evils by ad- 
justing the taxation, the expenditures, and the currency of the 
country, to the changed conditions of affairs. This it is our 
duty to do with a lirm and steady hand." 

Going through the successive experiments of the country in 
paper money, and censuring strongly the error of Congress in 
18GG in preventing a further contraction of the currency, he 
then submitted his own plan for restoring the paper dollar as 
the honest representative of its face value. His j:)rocess was a 
very simple one : it was to direct and authorize the Secretary 
of the Treasury, on and after the first day of December, 1S68, 
to pay gold coin for any legal-tender note that might be pre- 
sented at the office of the Assistant Treasurer in New York, at 
the rate of one dollar in gold for $1,30 in legal-tender notes. 
On and after the first day of January, 1869, the rate should be 
one dollar in gold for $1.29 in legal-tender notes, and during 
each successive month the amount of legal-tender notes required 
for exchange for one dollar in gold should be one cent less than 
was required for the preceding month, until the exchange should 
be one dollar in gold for one dollar in legal-tender notes — dollar 
for dollar. But there was a proviso that nothing in the act 
should be so construed as to authorize the retirement or cancel- 
lation of any legal-tender notes of the United States. There 
were one hundred million dollars of gold in the Treasury at 
that time, which would have been sufficient, with the half mil- 
lion a day received from customs, to carry out the provisions of 
this bill. This was not in the nature of a new experiment, for 
it was tried in England under an act passed, in 1819, under the 
leadership of Robert Peel, which reached resumption in the 



86 THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

same gradual manner. Tlie English act at once gave a fixed 
value to paper money, and business so readily adjusted itself in 
anticipation, that specie payments were resumed two years be- 
fore tlie time fixed by the law. 

Gariield, witli his sublime confidence in the intelligence, integ- 
rity and courage of the American people, believed that if Con- 
gress would do something definite to restore an honest currency, 
the people would soon adjust themselves to the evils of the 
transition, and reminded Congress that after the first defeat at 
3ull Ivun many oflicers of the Government thought it not safe 
to let tlie people know at once the whole extent of the disaster, 
but that the news should be broken gently, that the nation 
might be better able to bear it ; but " long before the close of 
the war it was found that the Cabinet and Congress and all 
the officers of the United States needed for themselves to draw 
hope and courage from the great heart of the people. It was 
only necessary for the nation to know the extent of the danger, 
the depth of the need, and its courage, faith, and endurance 
were always equal to the necessity." 

On the 15th of July, following the speech on the currency, 
Garfield made a rei)ly to General Butler and Mr. Frederick A. 
Pike, who had been ventilating some rather specious fallacies 
with regard to the taxation of United States bonds, a theme 
which, from its very nature, has been the favorite subject of 
demagogues who pay the American people the poor compliment 
of believing that they can be induced to sacrifice the national 
credit, which is the foundation of all credit and prosperity, and 
the common interest of the people in order to strike, or to ap- 
pear to strike, at the class known as the " bloated bondhold- 
ers," which designation is as false and deceptive as the argu- 
ments that have been called out by a supposed prejudice. Gar- 
field first riddled the argument made by Mr. Pike on the basis 
of misconceptions and perversions of English legislation on the 
subject, and, of course, was ready with the facts and authori- 
ties that rendered his exposure scathing and effectual. There 
was a running debate between Mr. Pike and Mr. Butler, on one 



THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 87 

side, and Garfield, on the other, in which Garfield met his an- 
tagonists at every point, showed superior knowledge of facts, 
dates, statutes and events, and strengthened his argument by 
an exposure of the fallacies of his opponents, and by showing 
his own superior mastery of the whole subject. This was a de- 
bate in which mere cramming on an unprepared mind, however 
vigorous and ready, would have been of no avail. It required 
thorough, extensive and well-digested knowledge and thinking, 
as the condition of success in such an encounter. After resist- 
ing successfuly every onset of his antagonists, he showed the 
immediate evil effects of taxing the bonds in a merely financial 
point of view, illustrating it by the fact, which was peculiarly 
effective in Butler's ease, that while the Massachusetts.five per 
cent gold bonds were quoted in London at 89 and 80, the ten- 
forty gold-bearing 5 per cent United States bonds were at 68i, 
merely because Massachusetts had not only kept faith through all 
the vicissitudes of the war, but had not sought technical 
grounds of escape from her obligations. But rising from the im- 
mediately pecuniary point of tiew, he honored his party by ex- 
pressing his pride in it, because, " having saved the life of the 
nation by its policy, it now declares its unalterable purpose to 
save by its truth and devotion, what is still more precious, the 
faith and honor of the nation." He quoted the declaration 
made by the old English gentleman in the days of Charles 
II., as one that does honor to human nature. "lie said he 
was willing at any time to give his life for the good of his 
country, but he would not do a mean thing to save his country 
from ruin." '' So sir," said Garfield, " ought a citizen to feel 
in regard to our financial affairs. The people of the United 
States can afford to make any sacrifice for their country, and 
the history of the last war is proof of their willingness ; but the 
humblest citizen cannot afford. to do a mean or a dishonorable 
thing, to save even this glorious Republic." 

Two of Garfield's speeches on the currency question are suffi- 
ciently representative of his latest views to afford the material 



88 THE LIFE OF QY.N. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

for illustrating the continuous and consistent workings of his 
mind on this vitally important subject. 

The first of these speeches was delivered in the House on the 
16th of November, 1877, on the House bill for the repeal of the 
third section of the act entitled '' An Act for the Resumption 
of Specie Payments. ' ' At the very outset of this, he reiterated 
the assertion he had made frequently before, that the contest 
for a sound currency was not a new one, nor the arguments for 
a vicious currency peculiar American inventions. Said he : 
" Hardly a proposition has been heard on either side which was 
not made one hundred and eighty years ago in England, and 
almost a hundred years ago in the United States." With his 
usual ii^tellectual habit of comb;iting partial truths or passing 
ervors of popular judgment by larger inductions from facts and 
from history, he urged that it " was only when long spaces of 
time are considered that we find at last that level of public 
opinion Avhich we call the general judgment of mankind ; and 
from the turbulent ebb and flow of the public opinion of to-day 
he appealed to that settled judgment of mankind on the sub- 
ject-matter of debate." Going back to the period of universal 
prosperity which prevailed just before the war, he recalled the 
fact that : 

" If any one thing was settled above all other questions of 
financial policy in the American mind at that time, it was this : 
that the only sound, safe, trustworthy standard of value was 
coin of standard weight and fineness or a paper currency con- 
vertible into coin at the will of the holder. That was and had 
been for several generations the almost unanimous opinion of 
the American people. It was true there was here and there a 
theorist dreaming of the philosopher's stone, dreaming of a time 
when paper money, which he worshipped as a kind of fetich, 
would be crowned as a god, but those dreamers were so few in 
number that they made no ripple on the current of public 
thought, and their theories formed no part of public opinion. 
The opinion of 1860 to 1861 was the aggregated result of the 
opinions of all the foremost Americans who have left their 
record upon this subject. 

"■ No man," said he, " ever sat in the seat of Washington as 
President of the United States who has left on record any word 



THE LIFE OF GEN-. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 89 

tliat favors iuconvertible paper money as a safe standard of 
value. Every President who hiis left a record on the subject 
has spoken without qualification in favor of the doctiine I have 
announced. No man ever sat in the chair of the Secretary of 
the Treasury of the United States who, if he has spoken at all 
on the subjr^ct, has not left on record an opinion equally strong, 
from Hamilton down to the days of the distinguished father of 
my colleague [Mr. Ewing], and to the present moment. The 
general judgment of all men who deserve to be called the lead- 
ers of American thought, ought to be considered worth some- 
thing in an American House of Representatives on the discus- 
sion of a great topic like this." 

Then he briefly developed the reasons for the great convul- 
sions of public opinion on this before-settled subject, which 
w^ere occasioned by the peculiar circumstances of the war, and 
reminded the House that 

" Only twelve years have passed— (for as late as 1865 this 
House, with but *six dissenting votes, resolved again to stand 
by the old ways and bring the country to sound money)— only 
twelve years have passed, and what do we find ? We find a 
group of theorists and doctrinaires who look upon the wisdom 
of the fathers as foolishness. We find some who advocate what 
they call ' absolute money ' ; who declare that a piece of paper 
stamped a ' dollar ' is a dollar ; that gold and silver are a part 
of the barbarism of the past, which ought to be forever aban- 
doned. We hear them declaring that resumption is a delusion 
and a snare. We hear them declaring that the eras of pros- 
perity are the eras of paper money. They point us to all times 
of inflation as periods of blessing to the people and prosperity 
to business ; and they ask us no more to vex their ears with any 
allusion to the old standard, the money of the Constitution. 
Let the wild swarm of financial literature that has sprung into 
life within the last twelve years witness how widely and how 
far we have drifted. We have lost our old moorings, have 
thrown overboard our old comiDass ; we sail by alien stars, 
looking not for the haven, but are afloat on a harborless sea." 

In combating the finan( ial fallacies of M\\ Buckner, Mr. Har- 
rison, Judge Kelley and others, he showed his thorough famil- 
iarity with the financial experiments in the way of resumption 
in France, England, and Germany, and defended as a blessing 



90 THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

the resumption act of 1819 in England, sho vying that the dis- 
tresses suffered by that country from 1821 to 1826 did not arise 
from the resumption of specie payments, but from other causes, 
the two especial causes being the corn laws and over specula- 
tion. Then he riddled the fallacies of those who assume that 
legislation in favor of the immediate interests of the debtor 
class is for the benefit of laboring men. His argument on this 
theme is one so well adapted to popularize sound doctrine of 
finance that it is entitled to be quoted from at some length, to 
wit : 

" As a matter of fact, the poor man, the laboring man, can- 
not get heavily in dt;bt. He has not the security to offer. Men 
lend their money on security ; and, in the very nature of the 
case, poor men can borrow but little. What, then, do poor 
men do with their small earnings? When a man has earned, 
out of bis hard work, a liundred dollars more than he needs for 
current expenses, he reasons thus : ' I cannot go into business 
with a hundred dollars ; I cannot embark in trade ; but, as I 
work, I want my money to work.' And so he puts his small 
gains where they will earn something. He hrids his money to 
a wealthier neighbor, or puts it into a savings bank. There 
were in the United States, on the first of November, 1876, 
forty-four hundred and seventy-five savings banks and private 
banks of deposit ; and their deposits amounted to ,*1,377,- 
000,000, almost three fourths the amount of our national debt. 
Over two and a half millions of the citizens of the United States 
were depositors. In some States the deposits did not arerage 
more than $250 each. The great mass of the depositors are 
men and women of small means— laborers, widows, and 
orphans. They are the lenders of this enormous aggregate. 
The savings banks, as their agents, lend it — to whom ? Not to 
the laboring poor, but to the business men who wish to enlarge 
their business beyond their capital. Speculators sometimes 
borrow it. But in the main, well-to-do business men borrow 
these hoardings. Thus the poor lend to the rich. 

" Gentlemen assail the bondholders of the country as the rich 
men who oppress the poor. Do they know how vast an amount 
of the public securities are held by the poor people ? I took 
occasion, a few years since, to ask the officers of a bank in one 
of the counties of my district, a rural district, to show me the 
number of holders and amounts held of United States Iwnds on 



THE LIFE OF GEX. JAMES A. GAllEIELD. 91 

which they collcctefl the interest. The total amount waS 
$410,000. And how many people held them ? One hundred 
and ninety-six. Of these, just cip^ht men held from $15,000 to 
$20,000 each ; the other one hundred and eighty-eight ranged 
from $50 up to $2500. I found in that list, fifteen orphan 
children and sixty widows, who had a little left them from their 
fathers' or husbands' estates, and had made the nation their 
guardian. And I found one hundred and twenty-one laborers, 
mechanics, ministeis. men of slender means, who had saved 
their earnings and put them in the hands of the United States, 
that tliey might be safe. And they were the ' bloated bond- 
holders, ' against whom so much eloquence is fulminated in this 
House. 

" There is another way in which poor men dispose of their 
money. A man says, I can keep my wife and babies from 
starving while I live and have my health ; but if I die they may 
be compelled to go over the hill to the poor-house ; and, 
agonized by that thought, he saves of his hard earnings enough 
to take out and keep alive a small life-insurance policy, so that, 
if he dies, there may be something left, provided the insurance 
company to which he intrusts his money is honest enough to 
keep its pledges. And how many men do you think have done 
that in the United States ? I do not know the number for the 
Avhole country ; but I do know this, that from a late report of 
the insurance commissioners of the State of New York, it 
appears that the companies doing business in that State had 
774,625 policies in force, and the face value of these policies 
was $1,922,000,000. I find, by looking over the returns, that 
in my State there are 55,000 policies outstanding ; in Pennsyl- 
vania, 74,000 ; in Maine 17,000 ; in Maryland, 25,000, and in 
the State of New York, 100,000. There are, of course, some 
rich men insured in these companies ; but the majority are poor 
people ; for the policies do not average more than $2,200 each. 
What is done with the assets of these companies, which amount 
to $445,000,000 ? They are loaned out. Here again the cred- 
itor class is the poor, and the insurance companies are the 
agents of the poor to lend their money for them. It would be 
dishonorable for Congress to legislate either for the debtor class 
or for the creditor class alone. "We ought to legislate for the 
whole country. But when gentlemen attempt to manufacture 
sentiment against the resumption act, by saying it will help th«e 
rich and hurt the poor, they are overwhelmingly answered by 
the facts. 

" Suppose you undo the work that Congress has attempted — 



92 THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

to resume specie jmymcnt — what will result ? You will depre- 
ciate the value of the greenback. Suppose it falls ten cents on 
the dollar. You will have destroyed ten per cent of the value 
of every deposit in the savings banks, ten per cent of every life- 
insurance policy and fire-insurance policy, of every pension to 
the soldier, and of every day's wages of every laborer in the 
nation. 

" In the census of 1870 it was estimated that on any given 
day there were $120,000,000 due to the laborers for their un- 
paid wages. That is a small estimate. Let the greenback 
dollar come down 10 per cent and you take $12,000,000 from 
the men who have already earned it. In the name of every in- 
terest connected with the poor man, I denounce this effort to 
prevent resumption. Daniel Webster never uttered a greater 
truth in finance than wiien he said that of all contrivances to 
cheat the laboring classes of mankind none was so effective as 
that which deluded them with irredeemable paper money. 
The rich can take care of themselves ; but the dead-weight of 
all the fluctuation and loss falls ultimately on the poor man who 
has only his day's work to sell. 

" I admit that in the passage from peace to war there was a great 
loss to one class of the community, to the creditors ; and in the 
return to the basis of peace some loss to debtors was inevitable. 
This injustice was unavoidable. The loss and gain did not fall 
upon tlie same people. The evil could not be balanced nor ad- 
justed. The debtors of 1862-65 are not the debtors of 1877. 
The most competent judges declare that the average life of 
private debts in the United States is not more than two years. 
Of course, obligations may be renewed, but the average life of 
private debts in this country is not more than tw^o years. Now, 
we have already gone two years on the road to resumption, and 
the country has been adjusting itself to the new condition of 
things. The people have expected resumption, and have 
already discounted most of the hardships and sufferings inci- 
dent to the change. The agony is almost over ; and if we now 
embark again upon the open sea, we lose all that has been 
gained and plunge the country into the necessity of trying once 
more the same boisterous ocean, with all its perils and uncer- 
tainties. I speak the deepest convictions of my mind and heart 
when I say that, should this resumption act be repealed and no 
effectual substitute be put in its place, the day is not far distant 
when all of us, looking back on this time from the depth of the 
evils which are sure to result, will regret, with all our power to 
regret, the day when we again let loose the dangers of inflation 
upon the country." 



THE LIFE OF GEX. JAMES A. GAKFIELD. 93 

His own position on the subject of greenbacks is perfectly 
delineated in this paragraj)!! of the same speech : 

" We "who defend the resumption act propose not to destroy 
the greenback but to dignify it, to glorify it. The law that 
we defend does not destroy it, but preserves its volume at 
$300,000 000, makes it equal to and convertible into coin. I ad- 
mit that the law is not entirely free from ambiguity. But the 
Secretary of the Treasury, who has the execution of the la^, 
declares that section 3579 of the Revised Statutes is in lull 
force, namely : 

" ' When any United States notes are returned to the Treas- 
ury, they may be reissued, from time to time, as the exigencies 
of the public interest may require.' 

" Although I do not believe in keeping greenbacks as a per- 
manent currency in the United States, although I do not my- 
self believe in the Government becoming a permanent banker, 
yet I am willing for one, that, in order to prevent the shock to 
business which gentlemen fear, the $300,000,000 of greenbacks 
shall be allowed to remain in circulation at par, as long as the 
wants of trade show manifestly that they are needed." 

In 1878 he was invited to make a speech in behalf of honest 
money in Faneuil Hall. This argument was so admirably 
adapted to meet the ingenious fallacies with which General 
Butler at that time was agitating the laboring classes in Massa- 
chusetts that it was printed in a neat pamphlet, together with 
a refutation of some of General Butler's recent misstatements on 
the currency question, by Mr. William Endicott, Jr., a docu- 
ment of extraordinary incisiveness and vigor ; and the speech 
and the letter together were universally circulated iii Massachu- 
setts, and produced a powerful effect on the then pending cam- 
paign. The introduction of this speech stated a general truth, 
which is just as applicable to the present campaign as it was to 
that of 1878 in Massachusetts. Said he : 

" Real political issues cannot be manufactured by the leaders 
of political parties, and real ones cannot be evaded by political 
parties. [Applause.] The real political issues of the day de- 
clare themselves and come out of the depths of that deep 
which we call public opinion. The nation has a life of its own 
as distinctly defined as the life of an individual. The signs of 



94 THE LIFE OF GEX. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

its growth and the periods of its development make the issues 
declare themselves ; and the man or the political party that 
does not discover them, has not learned that character of the 
nation's life. Now, as heretofore, attempts are being made to 
create political issues. They will all fail. [Applause.] One 
group of politicians is seeking to find in the reminiscences of 
the Presidential Election of 1876 the political issues of this 
year. They cannot raise the dead. [xVpplause.] Others be- 
lieve they can make State issues the chief topic of this year. 
But you are about to create the Forty-sixth Congress, and give 
it the impulse of your aspirations and opinions. The issues are 
too large for the boundaries of any State. They declare them- 
selves and challenge you to meet them." 

Then, reviewing the successive dominant issues that had con- 
trolled the politics of the country since the firing on Sumter, he 
was brought to that which he regarded as the fourth and the 
last, and this issue still remains. It is that of the finances, as to 
■which he began by recalling the heroic period of the w^ar, -when 
the exigencies of the Government were met by voluntary loans 
and cheerfully-paid taxes by the people. Then he recurred to the 
forced loan required by the exigencies of the war, in the shape 
of the issue of irredeemable greenbacks. Referring to Lin- 
coln's recommendation of the organization of national banks, 
the final step in broadening our financial ability to meet extra- 
ordinary emergencies, he said that, great as w^ere the tasks 
undertaken by him and Jiis associates, they did not claim wis- 
dom enough "to regulate the inexorable laws of value and of 
trade ;"and that brought him face to face with the most popu- 
lar of all the financial fallacies that have aflflicted the country — 
that of a currency issued by the Government to meet " the 
wants of trade," as to which there is no better definition of 
what is practicable and impracticable than Garfield gave in the 
following passage : 

" Is there any man in America wise enough to measure the 
wants of trade and tell just how much currency is needed ? 
Who forgets the infinite difficulty to find a man with brain 
enough and resource enough to feed an army and to clothe it 
and to house it ? Its house is of the rudest — only a piece cf 



THE LIFE OF GEN-. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 95 

cloth ; its clotliing is of the simplest, and its food is a definitely- 
prescribed ration. But it is considered worthy of the glory of 
one glorious life to l)e al)le to feed and clothe and house an 
army of a hundred thousand men, [Applause.] Now, fellow- 
citizens, suppose somebody should oifer to take the contract of 
feeding, clothing, and liousing Boston and its suburbs, includ- 
ing half a million of men. Remember that all nations are 
placed under contribution to supply the city of Boston : every 
clime sends its supplies ; every portion of our own land, all our 
roads of transportation are looked to to supply the tables, 
houses, and the clothing of this community. Do you suppose 
any man in the world is wise enough, is skilful enough to sup- 
ply the wants of this population, in a circle of twenty miles 
around Boston ? Now multiply that by a hundred, and get the 
population of the United States. Is there any man in this 
world wise enough, is there any congress in the world wise 
enough, to measure the wants of 45,000,000 of people and tell 
just what is needed for their supplies? [Applause.] No, 
fellow-citizens ; but there is something behind legislation that 
does— docs all so quietly and so perfectly. Ev^ery man seeking 
his own interest, millions of men acting for themselves, acting 
under the great law of supply and demand, the laws of trade, 
feed Boston, feed the United States, clothe, house, and trans- 
port the nation and carry on all its mighty works in perfect 
harmony and with ease, because the higher law above legisla- 
tion—the law of demand and supply— pervading and covering 
all, settles that great question, far above the wisdom of one 
man, or a thousand men to determine it. 

"And now, one of the great means by which all these 
mighty tranasctions are carried on is the currency that circu- 
lates and exchanges values among all these people. Every 
transaction, abroad or at home, of the eleven hundred million 
dollars' w^orth of trade we have with Europe and Asia, of the 
ten times greater value of our home trade, is carried on and 
regulated by that great pervading law, higher than legislation 
and wiser than the wisdom of men. To that law we must con- 
form our currency system, or it will perish. Any congress or 
any party that tells you they are going to vote a sufficient sup- 
ply of currency for the wants of trade, tells you they are going 
to do an impossibility. [Applause.] It cannot be. [Applause.] 
And it w%as for that reason that the men of 1862 and 1864 
established a svstem of banking to be diffused throughout the 
Republic, which was held to the strictest accountability for the 
character of its securities to the depositors and bill-holders ; 



06 THE LIFE OF GEN". JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

but the volume of its circulation was to depend, not upon the 
uncertain will and more uncertain wisdom of Congress, but 
upon the law of demand and supply. Bound always to redeem 
their notes in greenbacks or coin, their own interests and safety 
would lead them to enlarge or contract tliat volume, as the 
tide of business should ebb or flow. 

" Such was the origin, and such the character of the financial 
system established by the men who guided the war for the 
Union." [Applause.] ♦ 

He then proceeded to show what the Government had done 
to relieve the people of the terrible burdens of debt that were 
necessarily incurred in the salvation of the Union. He showed 
that in exact proportion as the nation had observed good faith 
to its creditors had prosperity come in and grown, and had the 
burdens of taxation been diminished. 

" All the finance of the period," said he, " is summed up in 
the present overmastering duty to resume specie payments and 
keep the promise. And here," he added, "I meet the chief 
debate on the issues of this year. This proposition is met 
throughout America by a storm of indignant opposition, and 
we stand to-day in the very teeth of a storm that we must 
either meet in honor or be swept away by. On that ground we 
meet our antagonists, and challenge them to the combat." 

Then he tackled squarely the fiat money delusion in all its 
phases ; riddled completely General Butler's scheme of a non- 
exportable and inconvertible fiat money ; brought to view the 
purposes of the Fathers of the Constitution in limiting the 
powers of Congress as to fixing the standards of value ; defined 
the nature and use of paper money, and ridiculed the idea that 
Congress could increase the wealth or the comforts of the 
nation by any amount of issues of irredeemable paper. 

Some of his illustrations were peculiarly applicable to the most 
ordinary understanding. Said he : 

" Suppose the farmers in your agricultural districts should 
say, We are in distress ; our great need is more land ; if we 
had more land we would get on better with our affairs ; and now 
let us get a law through the General Court that every man ma/ 



THE LIFE OF GEX. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 97 

surrender up his deed and have a new one -written, with two 
acres for every one. [Laughter and applause.] When you can 
enlarge your farm by changing the figures in your deeds [laugh- 
ter] ; when your dairymaid can make more butter and cheese 
by watering her milk [applause] ; when you can have more 
cloth by decreasing your yardstick one half [laughter] ; when 
you can sell more tons of merchandise by shortening your pound 
one half— then, and not until then, you can increase the vmIuc 
of your property or labor by decreasing your standard of 
values." [Applause.] 

In the same line of illustration was what he said of the effect 
of an inflated currency of uncertain value : 

" An uncertain currency that goes up and down, hits the 
raborer, and hits him hard. [Prolonged applause.] It helps 
him last, and hurts him first. [Applause.] Therefore, of all 
men in America, the man who should demand the resumption 
of specie payment, and the fixing and making certain the 
standard of value, is the laboring man, who can only suffer 
iN'hen that standard is departed from. [Applause.] The cap- 
italist can take advantage of the market ; if he has anything to 
buy, he is not compelled to buy it all to-day; he can wait until 
the market price is low, and buy at advantage. If he has any- 
thing to sell, he is n-ot compelled to sell it to-day, but can wait 
untiFthe price is up, and sell it at the best. Not so with the 
laboring man, who goes to market with just one thing to sell, 
and that is his day's work. He must sell it to-day, at the 
price to-day, or it will be wholly lost. [Applause.] What he 
needs to buy he must buy now, when necessity compels him. 
He cannot, like the capitalist, dodge the call of inflation or 
contraction, but pays the day's standard of value ; and so it 
strikes him both wavs, and strikes him hard. [Applause.] 
What, therefore, the laboring man needs, is this, that when he 
has earned his money, he shall get it in a currency that will 
keep over night." [Prolonged applause and cheers.] 

Quoting in a subsequent part of this speech the prediction of 
Macaulay made in 1857, that the conflicts between capij;al and 
labor would ultimately destroy our institutions, he said that 
with all his soul he repelled that prophecy as false ; and the 
reasons which he gave for his faith were admirably calculated 
to lead discontented men who were clutching at specious and 



98 THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELT>. 

temporary measures for relief from business misfortunes tc 
broader views of the nature and blessedness of our institutions. 
Said he : 

" My first answer is this : No man who has not lived among 
us can understand one thing about our institutions ; no man 
who has been born and reared under monarchical governments 
can understand the vast difference between theirs and ours. 
How is it in monarchical governments ? Their society is one 
series of caste upon caste. Down at the bottom, like the granite 
rocks in the cnist of the earth, lie the great body of laboring 
men. An Englishman told me not long ago that in twenty-five 
years of careful study of the agricultural class of England, he 
had never known one who was born and reared in the ranks of 
farm laborers that rose above his class and became a well-to-do 
citizen. That is a most terrible sentence, that three millions of 
people should lie at the bottom of society, with no power to 
rise. Above them the gentry, the hereditary capitalist ; above 
them, the nobility ; above them, the royalty ; and, crowning all, 
the sovereign— all impassable barriers of caste. 

" No man born under such institutions can understand the 
mighty difference between them and us in this country. Thank 
God, and thank the fathers of the Republic who made, and the 
men who carried out the promises of the Declaration, that in 
this country there are no classes, fixed and impassable. Here 
society is not fixed in horizontal layers, like the crust of the 
earth, but, as a great New England man said, years ago, it is 
rather like the ocean, broad, deep, grand, open, and so free in 
all its parts that every drop that mingles with the yellow sand 
at the bottom may rise through all the waters, till it gleams in 
the sunshine on the crest of the highest waves. So it is here in 
our free society, permeated with the light of American freedom. 
There is no American boy, however poor, however humble, 
orphan though he may be, that, if he have a clear head, a true 
heart, a stroug arm, he may not rise through all the grades of 
society, and become the crown, the glory, the pillar of the 
State. 

" Here, there is no need for the old-world war between 
capital and labor. Here is no need of the explosion of social 
order predicted by Macaulay. All we need is the protection of 
just and equal laws — just alike to labor and to capital. Every 
poor man hopes to lay by something for a rainy day — hopes to 
become a capitalist, for capital is only accumulated labor. 
Whenever a laborer has earned one hundred dollars more than 



THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



9^ 



he needs for daily expenses, he becomes to that extent a capi- 
talist, and needs to be safe in its enjoyment [^^PPlause 

" There is another answer to Macaulay. He could not under- 
stand-no man could understand until he had seen it-the 
almost omnipotent power of our system of ed^ucation that 
teaches our people how to be free by teaching them to be in- 
telligent. But fellow-citizens, who has read the letter ot 
Macaulay that did not remember it a year ago last July^ Y^f ^ 
in ten great States of the Union millions of American cit zens 
and millions of American property were in peril of destmction ? 
when the spirit of mob ran riot ? when Pittsburg flamed m 
ruin and smoked in blood, and many of our great cities were 
Id peril of destructioa-who did not remember the doctrine of 
Macaulay then, and did not anew resolve that tl^ebloody track 
of the Commune should have no pathway on our shore ? [Great 

""^'K^rhave introduced all this for the purpose o/.sayi^g,*^^^ 
behind the element that now attacks the public faith ; behind 
the misguided honest men who have adopted the greenback 
theory ; behind them, and preparing the movement, is com- 
munism, coming from its dens in Europe and this country. 

This speech made a deep and profound impression in Massa. 
chusetts at the time, and gave him a rank in the opinions of the 
Republican leaders in that State which accounts largely for the 
universal gratification with which his nomination at Chicago 

was received. ^ . rr- ^ ? ^ 

{Garfield to B. A. Hinsdale.) 

Wabhington, D. C, January 20, 1867. 
Your letters are, and have always been, a source of great pleasure to me ; for 
I feel that we have much less Beed than most people of ^^ose commonp lace 
platitudes and guarded utterances which so abound m correspondence. I hope 
our New Year's custom will never be abandoned till one of us .s -movedj^- 
yond the necessity of earthly communications 1 am preparmg ^^^ ^he financ.a 
Lislation which will develop all the mania of the paper age. ^ «^f ^^^/fj^^ 
o;erborne by the brute force of votes; but I expect to be vindicated before 
lotrwhen the people look back from the gulf of financial rum into which they 
ar^hrstenin^, and see that I was the true friend of their industrial interests 
The appeal frim Philip druuk to Philip sober is not a pleasant cue to make ; it 
is not complimentary to Philip. . . . 

{Garfiela to B. A. Hinsdale.) 

Washington, D. C, December 5, 1867. 
The appointment took the House completely by surprise. Schenck had no 
such expectations, and was in favor of my appointment as chairman of W a, . aa^ 



100 THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GAKFIELD. 

Mcaus. Next to the pleasure of having that place by the consent of the Honse 
is the satisfaction I have of knowing tiiat tlie regret is very general that I was 
net appointed. Of course, the place I am in is important, but out of the cliosen 
line of my studies. I don't intend to be thrown out of financial work, and, al- 
ready, a few of us who have idea? on tlie t^ubject are talking of forming aisortof 
volunteer outside committee to consider these subjects together and debate 
them in the House. . . . I have examined the testimony and reports of the 
J;idiciary Committee in reTerence to impeachment, and have been compelled to 
conclude that they liave not made out a case. 1 shall, therefore, vote against the 
measure. It may, and probably will, cost me my political life. I see all this, 
and. after having studied the question of impeachmtut carefully, I see my duty 
most clearly, and 1 am glad to toll you that my heart and will have not hesitated 
for a moment in deciding my course. 

You and I are trying experiments— you to see whether a man can think and 
spoak his convictions and stay in the Di.^ciple ministry ; I, whether 1 can do the 
same and represent a Western Reserve constituency. We shall know before 
long whether the experiment can succeed ; if it fails, the world is wide, and we 
are free. 

(OaiJltiJ to B. A. Hinsdale.) 

Washington, D. C, December 15, 1867. 

I appreciate what you say in reference to thocurrency question. My convic- 
tions on some points of that subject are so clear that I have a very plain duty to 
do, from which I dare not fiincli, were I coward enough to desire to. 

The Phillipses are quite mistaken in supposing that theirt is a case without 
precedent. Oa the contrary, there are an abundance of precedents, both in our 
own and other countries, and they all teach the same lesson. Financial subjects 
are nuts and clover for demagogues. Men's first opinions are almost alwaya 
wrong in regard to them, aa they arc in rega d to astronomy, and he who reads 
the truths that lie deepest is in imminent danger of being tabooed foraniadman. 
... It may be that before very long the only escape out of the Butler- 
Fend'.eton bond repudiation scheme on the one hand, and the contraction and 
inflation fight on the other, is by the shortest road to specie payments, when the 
conlractionists will be willing to let the inflationists have tlieir fill of paper 
money so long as they redeem it, and when the cry that the soldier or his widow 
is paid in poorer money than the bondholder would be ended. The early return 
to specie payments would settle more difficult and dangerous questions than any 
one such act i-as done in history, so far as I know. I am glad to have the op- 
portunity of standing up against a rabble of men who hasten to make weather- 
cocks of themselves. 

Think of this : December 8th, 1805, the House passed the following resolu- 
tion by ayes 144, noes 6 : *" liesolved. That this House cordially concurs in the 
views of the Secretary cf the Treasury in ri-lation to the necessity of a contrac- 
tion of the currency, witi: a view to as early resumption to specie payments as 
the business interests of the country will permit, and wu hereby pledge coupera- 
tion to this end as speedily as possible." 

Ten years ago but thirty-two men were found to vote against a bill to stop 



) 



THE LIFE OF GEK. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 101 



contraction altogether. There are near a hundred of the same men who voted 
on the two measures. 

{Garfield to B. A. Tlbudale.) 

Hiram, Ohio, New Year's Eve, 1867-1868. 
I fear I am not able to write you anything that will be more than an apology 
for my usual New Year's letter. I have just returned from a tedious trip to 
Ashtabula, where I made a two hours' speech on finance, and, when I came home, t 
came through a storm of paper-money denunciation in Cleveland, only to find on t 
my arrival here a sixteen-page letter full of alarm and prophecy of my political ruin ,' 
lor ray opinions on the currency. 

{Oarfield to B. A. Hinsdale.) 

Washington, April 10, 1874. 
I have no doubt the speech will do me great injury in the district, and add ' 
new fuel to the hostility against me ; but I would not on any account flinch from 
my c<»nviction on this subject. I have probably never received higher encomium-} 
for anything I have done in Congress than for this liberal speech ; but, of course, j 
the praise comes mainly from those who are not of the West. 

{.Garfield to B. A. Hinsdale.) 

Washington, April 23, 1874 
Who will deny that Grant is one of the luckiest men that ever sat in the 
Presidential chair ? For twenty years no President has had an opportunity to do 
the country so much service by a veto message as Grant has, and he has met the 
issue manfully. You will read the veto message before this, and see how Talid 
a blow he struck the inflation iniquity. 



CHAPTER X. 

GAEFIELD AND THE TARIFF. 

"The difficult and complicated questions involved in the dis- 
cussion of the antagonistic systems of " Protection" and " Free 
Trade" have been gradually assuming more and more prominence 
in the public mind, since the issues growing out of the war have 
been either settled or reduced into secondary rank. It is quite 
likely that, as the nation becomes more consolidated and sec- 
tional animosities die out, the Tariff question will again rise to the 
proportions which it occupied during the long period when our 
ablest statesmen gave their best energies to its discussion, and 
when Presidents were elected or defeated largely on account of 
the popularity or unpopularity of their views on the subject of 
Protection. It might have been expected that Garfield, whose 
interest in, and knowledge of, political matters was like that of 
most men of his age at the time preceding the war and for 
years afterward, would have given little thought to the princi- 
ples which underlie the great controversies made memorable in 
our history by such discussions as those of Clay, Calhoun, Web- 
ster, Benton, and other great statesmen. To a certain exten 
this was true. When, at the age of 17, he liad fixed the whole 
purpose of his resolute nature on the acquisition of a college 
education, and when that involved not only hard study but 
hard work and great privations in the attainment of the means 
for getting an education, he determined to interest himself in 
nothing that w^ould divert his mind or energies from the manly 
path he had laid out for himself to pursue. It is possible that 
he might have been confirmed in this purpose by the influence 
of a fellow-pupil of great strength of character and individu- 
ality, who was imbued with the views of the class then known 
as the " Come-outers." These people, enthused by the extreme 



THE LIFE OF GEX. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 103 

anti-slavery views of Garrison, had come to the religious con- 
viction that it was wrong to have any connection with or inter- 
est in the politics of the age, on the ground that both political 
parties were so far complicated with the maintenance of the 
institution of slavery that to sustain either party would be to 
help preserve what they regarded as the sum of all villainies 
and wrongs. His schoolmate's earnest talk in this vein made 
such an impression on Garfield that it might have been damaging 
in its results, but for the imblication, about that time, of a series of 
articles by Alexander Campbell, the great founder of the "Disci- 
ples, ' ' or the ' ' Campbellite' ' sect, as they have been wrongly term- 
ed, which took the bold ground that there was Biblical and Chris- 
tian authority for the maintenance of the relation of master and 
slave. But with this qualification, that whoever adopted this 
theory was bound to apply the Christian law of love to the 
neighbor in his relations with the slave — a qualification which, 
it is needless to say, would have been pretty nearly impracti- 
cable to maintain in fact. The great j^ower of Campbell over 
young Garfield's mind, and the clearness of Campbell's demon- 
stration, rescued him from the ultra-fanaticism of his school- 
mate. But from that time till he comjileted his college course 
he gave as little thought and time to tlie study and discussion 
of any other political questions than those growing out of the 
institution of slavery, as it was possible for so vigorous and 
active a mind to refrain from bestowing. 

In the senior year in college his attention was first directed, 
in the usual course of study in Wayland's " Political Economy," 
to the question of Protection and Free Trade, to which it was 
his destiny to give a much more thorough study than has been 
pursued by any of our statesmen whose political reputations 
have been made since the war. Wayland's text-book is that of 
a moderate, conservative, and philosophical writer, whose ten- 
dencies were toward Free Trade, but who recognized and ad- 
mitted the practical difficulties in the way of realizing it. Gar- 
field gave himself to the study of this text-book with all the 
vigor and independent habit of thinking which have character- 



104 THE LIFE Of GEX. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

ized him from the beginning. He did his own thinking. Hi3 
mind was open to the" reception of the conflicting views that 
were presented in his text-book, and upheld by that broad- 
minded and statesman-like teacher, President Mark Hopkins. 
His immediate teacher, Professor Perry, was more inclined to 
radical Free Trade doctrines, but had not then developed into 
the doctrinaire which lie has since become. At the close of the 
chapters in Wajland on the subject of Protection and Free 
Trade, Professor Perry asked Garfield what were the impres- 
sions that he had received, and the view^s he entertained. His 
reply at that time was remarkable, not only for its terseness 
and comprehensiveness, but as showing the keen intuitions of 
his nature and his readiness to accept practical limitations ; in 
fact, his whole life liad been such a strenuous struggle against 
practical limitations that he was in little danger of becoming a 
mere theorist. His reply to Professor Perry was this : 

^'- As an alMract theory^ the doctrine of Free Trade seems to he 
itniversnlhj trve, hut as a question of])racticaJnUty, under a govern- 
ment like ottrs, tJie jyrotective system seems to he indispensahle.''' 

On this broad basis Garfield has firmly stood, and built up a 
national reputation as a statesman, in the handling of the ques- 
tion of Protection. 

For ten years after this definition of his views, the state of 
the country — the absorbing and exciting nature of the slavery 
question, of the w\ir, and of the legislation growing out of the 
war — prevented him from giving much attention to subjects in- 
volving merely financial considerations. But in 1866, in a speech 
which he made in the House, he showed that integrity, con- 
sistency, and development of intellectual conviction which is so 
greatly characteristic of his mind. 

In his speech in Congress he simply enlarged the definition 
which he gave to Professor Perry. He said : 

" We have seen that one extreme school of economists would 
place the price of all manufactured articles in the hands of for- 
eign producers by rendering it impossible for our manufacturer^ 
to compete wit4i them ; while the other extreme school, by 



THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 105 

makino- it impossible for the foreigner to sell his competing 
wares m our market, would give the people no immediate check 
upon the prices which our^manufacturers might fix for their 
products. I disagree with both these extremes. I hold tliat 
a properly adjusted competition between home and foreign prod- 
ucts is the best gauge by which to regulate international trade. 
Duties should be so high that our manufacturers can fairly com- 
pete with the foreign product, but not so high as to enable 
them to drive out the foreign article, enjoy a monopoly of the 
trade, and regulate the price as they please. This is my doc- 
trine of protection. If Congress pursues this line of policy 
steadily we shall, year by year, approach more nearly to the 
basis of free trade, because we shall be more nearly able to com- 
pete with other nations on equal terms. I am for a protection 
which leads to ultimate free trade. I am for that free trade 
which can only be achieved through a reasonable protection. ^ 

From the platform which he laid down for himself then he 
has never been driven by clamor, by misrepresentation, or by 
fear of being misunderstood. Every speech he has made since 
then on the Tarilf has been in rigid consistency with the princi- 
ples laid down in the above comprehensive paragraph. ^ On the 
1st of April, 1870, he made another speech on the Tariil ques- 
tion, which shows the progress of his study of the historical 
illustrations of the practical workings of Protection. He was 
perfectly ready to admit, at the outset, that, as an abstract 
theory of political economy. Free Trade has an attractive aspect, 
and that much can be said in its favor ; nor did he deny that the 
scholarship of modern times is largely on that side, or that the 
great majority of thinkers of the present day are leaning in the 
direction of what is called Free Trade ; but while making these 
concessions, with his customary liberality, he held that it was 
equally undeniable that the principle of Protection has always 
been recognized and admitted, in some form or other, by all 
nations, and is to-day, to a greater or less extent, the policy of 
every civilized government. Going through with the history 
of the planting of colonies in the New World, and of the policy 
pursued by England, particularly, toward her colonies, he 
summarized the methods by which England sought to make the 



lOG THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

colonists the mere dependent customers of the mother country, 
for every article which it was to the interest of England to ex- 
port. 

By this record of continuous and more and more oppressive 
tyranny over the colonists he illustrated the evil effects of such 
a system, and accounted for the subsequent reaction in England 
and in European nations toward Free Trade. The sentiment of 
Free Trade, as a protest against the old system of oppression 
and prohibition, he believed to be a sound one, but he held and 
proved that, underlying all theories, there had been a strong and 
deep conviction in the minds of the great majority of our people 
in favor of protecting American industry. And in the use of 
this phrase, "American industry," he was particular to avoid 
any misapprehension as to his meaning. He objected to any 
theory that treats the industries of the country as they were 
treated in the preceding census, where we had one schedule for 
" agriculture'' and another for " industry," as though agricul- 
ture were not an industry, as though commerce and art and 
transjDortation were not industries. Said he : 

" American industry is labor in any form which gives value 
to the raw materials or elementg of nature, either by ex- 
tracting them from the earth, the air, or the sea, or by 
modifying their forms or transporting them through the 
channels of trade to the markets of the world, or in any w^ay 
rendering them better fitted for the use of man. All these are 
parts of American industry, and deserve the careful and earnest 
attention of the legislature of the nation. Wherever a ship 
ploughs the sea, or a plough furrows the field ; wherever a mine 
yields its treasure ; wherever a ship or a railroad train carries 
freight to market ; wherever the smoke of the furnace rises or 
the clang of the loom resounds ; even in the lonely garret where 
the seamstress plies her busy needle, there is industry." 

Then, as ever since, he was willing to modify the Tariff 
wherever a change would give most relief to industry, and he 
advised those who wanted to undertake this diflicult task to 
study the key to our financial problems, or at least the chief 
factor in every such problem, the "doctrine of prices," and 



THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 107 

suggested that, if he was to direct any student of finance 
where to begin his studies he would r.efer him to the great 
work of Thomas Tooke on the "History of Prices," as the 
foundation upon which to build the superstructure of his 
knowledge. 

Going through the then recent history of prices in connection 
with the increase of duties, and the annual expenditures of the 
government, as well as the condition of our foreign trade, he 
pointed out the fact, which was ignored by " high tariff " men, 
that the markets of neighboring countries were not buying our 
products in the same proportion as before the war, and that 
one of the most efficient methods of encouraging home industry 
was to secure extensive markets, which could only be brought 
about by adjusting our prices so as to open our trade to more of 
the markets of the New World. 

When it came to the question of adjusting taxation, he held, 
first, that we should tax the "Vices" of the people, " if that 
term may be properly applied to some of their social habits." 
He admitted, and was one of the first to do so, that the income 
tax was "vexatious and inquisitorial," and hoped that our 
revenues would soon allow its abolition. Discussing what is 
known as the " Morrill Tariff " that was adopted, in 1861, in a 
most extraordinary and exceptional state of affairs, and which 
required extensive adjustments to conditions that existed in 
1866, he said that he had " refused to be the advocate of any 
special interest as against the general interest of the whole coun- 
try." "Whatever," said he, "maybe the personal or political 
consequences to myself, I shall try to act first for the good of 
all, and, within that limitation, for the industrial interests of 
the district which I represent." That he was sincere in this 
expression was proved by the position which he took in regard 
to a provision of the ' '. Schenck Tariff Bill' ' which most con- 
cerned the only great manufacturing interest in his own district 
—that is, the duty on pig-iron. There were at that time nine- 
teen iron-furnaces in blast in his district, nine more in the dis- 
trict of his colleague, Judge Ambler, and several more in the* 



108 THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIEL 

adjoining district, represented by another colleague, Mr. Upton. 
The bill reduced the duty on pig-iron $2, which was 22^ per cent 
less than the existing duty. Nevertheless, with a full knowledge 
of the certain results in his own district, and on a most influen- 
tial body of men, of his declaration, he frankly said : *' If the 
House of Representatives thinks that this ought to be done, and 
if I shall be convinced that the public requires it, I shall not 
resist it." 

It is unnecessary to refer to many of Garfield's speeches 
on the Tariff question. He has been so consistent through- 
out that it is only needed that extracts be given from a few of 
the more important of those speeches, delivered at consider- 
able intervals from one another. In 1878 an exceedingly able, 
ingenious, and eloquent plea for a Tariff adjusted to the old 
Southern doctrines was made by that distinguished Virginian, 
Mr. J. Randolph Tucker. IMr. Tucker's presentation of the 
subject to a Democratic House was so able that Garfield felt 
called upon ti) make a somewhat elaborate reply, and, as it 
showed the results of twelve years of study and reflection, 
since the making of the speech to which reference has been 
made above, it is worth while to give a tolerably full concep- 
tion of its drift and powerful points. Having read and re-read 
it carefully, and having read all the great speeches made in 
Congress for forty years before the war on this diflBcult ques- 
tion, it is my deliberate conviction that the sound American 
doctrine of Protection has never been stated with equal clear- 
ness, breadth, and practicality. At the very outset he demol- 
ished the foundations of Mr. Tucker's argument, which were 
based on the construction of the Constitution which was, be- 
fore the war, and still is, recognized by most Southern states- 
men. Mr. Tucker thought that if we were lo adopt a proper 
construction of the Constitution we should find that the regu- 
lation of commerce does not permit the protection of manufac- 
tures, nor can the power to tax be applied directly or indirectly 
to that object. 

.Without entering into an elaborate discussion of that ques- 



THE LIFE OF GEN". JAMES A. GARFIELD. 109 

tion, Garfield said : "I cannot refrain from expressing my ad- 
miration of the courage of the gentleman from Virginia, who in 
that part of his speech brought himself into point-blank range 
of the terrible artillery of James Madison, one of the Fathers 
of the Constitution, and Virginia's great exjioundcr of its pro- 
visions. More than one hundred pages of the collected works 
of James Madison are devoted to an elaborate and exhaustive 
discussion of the very objection which the gentleman (Mr. 
Tucker) has urged." 

And he made his otatement good, by full quotations from the 
great Virginia expounder. Having thus cleared away the Vir- 
ginia and South Carolina doctrines of the Constitution, he pro- 
ceeded to build up his own doctrine, from the language of the 
Constitution itself and from the practice of the Fathers of the 
Government, quoting the language of the Constitution, which 
says that "Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, 
duties, imposts, and excises, to pay the debts and provide for 
the common defence and general welfare of the United States." 
He held that the power to tax was the great motive power of 
the Government, and that " its regulation impels, retards, re- 
strains, or limits all the functions of the Government." With 
a broad comprehension of the creative ideas of the Fathers of 
the Government, he said : 

" The men wiio created this Constitution also set it in opera- 
tion, and developed their own idea of its character. That idea 
was unlike any other that then prevailed upon the earth. They 
made the general welfare of the people tlie great source and 
foundation of the common defence. In all the nations of the 
Old World the public defense was provided for by great stand- 
ing armies, navies, and fortified posts, so that the nation might 
every moment be fully armed against danger from without or 
turbulence within. Our fathers said : ' Though we will use the 
taxing power to maintain a small army and navy sufficient to 
keep alive the knowledge of war, j^et the main reliance for our 
defence shall be the intelligence, culture, and skill of our people ; 
a development of our own intellectual and material resources, 
which will enable us to do everything that may be necessary to 
equip, clothe, and feed ourselves in time of war, and make our- 
selves intelligent, haj)py, and prosperous in peace.' " 



110 THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

On this broad historic and philosophic basis he erected his 
theory of carrying out the intention of the Fathers, and of mak- 
ing this country really independent, as to all the essentials, 
both of existence and of self-defence, against any foreign enemy. 
He showed that the purpose of the Fathers to make their eman- 
cipation complete by adding to a-griculture all the mechanical 
arts, inspired the legislation of all the earlier Congresses, and 
that our legislation was continuously shaped with this view, un- 
til, under the lead of John C. Calhoun, the Protective Tariff of 
1816 was enacted. After going through a discussion of the 
practical operation of the " Morrill Tariff " as compared with 
that of the Revenue Tariff for fifteen years preceding the war, 
he boldly confronted the glittering generalities of Mr. Tucker, 
as expressed in these beautiful sentences : 

" Commerce, Mr. Chairman, links all mankind in one common 
brotherhood of mutual dependence and interests, and thus cre- 
ates that unity of our race which makes the resources of all the 
property of each and every member. We cannot if we would, 
and should not if we could, remain isolated and alone. Men 
under the benign influence of Christianity yearn for intercourse, 
for the interchange of thought and the products of thought as 
a means of a common progress toward a nobler civilization, 

He******* 

"Mr. Chairman, I cannot believe this is according to the 
Divine plan. Christianity bids us «eek, in communion with our 
brethren of every race and clime, the blessings they can afford 
us, and to bestow in return upon them those with which our 
new continent is destined to fill the world." 

This he admitted was " a grand conception, a beautiful vision 
of the time when all the nations should dwell in peace." . . . 
" If," said he, *' all the kingdoms of the world should become 
the kingdom of the Prince of Peace, then I admit that universal 
Free Trade ought to prevail. But that blessed era is yet too re- 
mote to be made the basis of the practical legislation of to-day. 
We are not yet members of ' the parliament of man, the federa- 
tion of the world.' For the present the world is divided into 
separate nationalities ; and that other divine command still ap- 



THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. Ill 

plies to our situation : ' He that providetli not for his own 
household has denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel,' 
and until that latter era arrives patriotism must supply the place 
of universal brotherhood." But he was careful to isolate him- 
self from that class of Congressmen whose support of the Tar- 
iff has been due to the special interests of their localities, and 
from those whose opposition to Protection has been due to the 
same influences, and it may be safely said that no instances can be 
found in his Congressional career when he has done or refused 
to do anything in the way of Tariff legislation not in consistency 
with these broad declarations. 

" Too much of our tariff discussion has been warped by narrow 
and sectional considerations. But when we base our ac|ion upon 
the conceded national importance of the great mdustnes I have 
referred to, when we recognize the fact that artisans and their 
products are essential to the well-being of our country, it tol- 
lows that there is no dweller in the humblest cottage on our re- 
motest frontier who has not a deep personal interest m the 
leo-islation that shall promote these great national industries. 
Those arts that enable our nation to rise in the scale of civiliza- 
tion bring their blessings to all, and patriotic citizens wi I cheer- 
fully bea? a fair share of the burden necessary to make their 
country great and self-sustaining. I will defend a tariff that is 
national in its aims, that protects and sustains those interests 
without which the nation cannot become great and sell-sus- 
taining. ■■ ' 

Then recurring to the fundamental doctrine of national de- 
velopment, as essential to national safety and independence, he 
added : 

" So important, in my view, is the ability of the nation to 
manufacture all these articles necessary to arm equip, and 
clothe our people, that if it could not be secured in any other 
way I would vote' to pay money out of the Federal Treasury to 
maintain Government iron and steel, woollen and cotton mills 
at whatever cost. Were we to neglect these great interests and 
depend upon other nations, in what a condition of help essness 
would we find ourselves when we should be again involved in 
war with the very nations on whom we were depending to tur- 
nish us these supplies ? The system adopted by our fathers is 



IVZ THE LIFE OP GEN". JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

wiser, for it so encourages the great national industries as to 
make it possible at all times for our people to equip themselves 
I'or war, and at the stune time increase their intelligence and 
skill so as to make them better fitted for all the duties of citi- 
zenship both in war and in peace. J\^ provide for the common 
defence ly a system ichich ijromotes the genend loeJfare.''' 

The last sentence of which is the most epigrammatic statement 
of the American system of Protection, as understood by Gar- 
field, which has ever been made in Congress ; and a still more par- 
ticular and definite statement of Garfield's general attitude on 
the question of Protection is found in the same speech, and 
seems to be about as comprehensive a platform and as practical 
a statement of this question as has ever been proposed by any 
of our pifblic men : 

"My view of the danger of extreme positions on the ques- 
tions of tariff rates may be illustrated by a remark made by 
Horace Greeley in the last conversation I ever had with that dis- 
tinguished man. Said he, 

'' ' My criticism of you is that you are not suflaciently high 
protective in your views.' 

" I replied, 

" ' What would you advise ? ' 

" He said, 

" ' If I had my way— if I were king of this country— I would 
put a duty of $100 a ton on pig-iron' and a proportionate duty 
on everything else that can be produced in America. The re- 
sult would be that our people would be obliged to supply their 
own wants ; manufactures would spring up, competition would 
finally reduce prices, and we should live wholly within our- 
selves.' 

" I replied that the fatal objection to his theory was that no 
man is king of this country, with power to make his policy per- 
manent. But as all our policies depend upon popular support, 
the extreme measure proposed would beget an opposite extreme, 
and our industries would suffer from violent reactions. For 
this reason I believe that we ought to seek that point of stable 
equilibrium somewhere between a prohibitory tariff on the one 
hand and a tariff that gives no protection on the other. What 
is that point of stable equilibrium ? In my judgment it is this : 
a rate so high that foreign producers cannot flood our_ markets 
and break down our home manufacturers, but not so high as to 



THE LIFE OF GE^. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



113 



keep them altogether out, enabling our manufacturers to com- 
bine and raise^the prices, nor so high as to stimulate an un- 
natural and unhealthy growth of manufactures. 

-In other words, I would have the duty so adjusted that 
every great American industry can fairly live and make fair 
profits and yet so low that if our manufacturers attempted o 
P up price^s unreasonably, the competition from abroad would 
come in and bring down prices to a fair rate, buch a tanff I 
beUevewillbesul)portedl.ythe great majority of ^Vmericans^ 
We are not far from having such a tarilT in f "^^ P'-^«^"\^^^;^/" 
some respects we have departed from that standard. Wherever 
wehave we should amend it, and by so doing we shall secure 
stability and prosperity." 

The latest exposition of General Gaifiekrs views on the Tariff 
is found in a report by the minority of the Committee on Ways 
and Means, submitted to the House on the 24th of May last. 
The report, whicli was his production, contains several interest- 
incr exhibits showing the operations of the Tariff, especially m 
de^'veloping the wool-growing interests, and the operation of the 
proposed tariff on wool manufactures, as well as interesting 
statements in regard to the growth of the manufacture of 
earthenware in the United States and its remarkable develop- 
ment. The report itself is a brief and thoroughly practical 
document, reviewing some of the inconsistencies and injustices 
of the tariff proposed by the majority of the Committee. Some 
of the illustrations of the evils that might grow out of the pro- 
posed tariff changes are entirely in the line of Garfield^s consist- 
ent policy of developing into a state of reasonable independence 
and security those manufactures which are most essential to the 
practical independence of the country, as to every article which 
might become indispensable in case of foreign war. He noted 
the^ growth, under the favoring protection of the existing tariff, 
of such manufactures as that of steel files, which had within a 
few years become fully established, so as to reduce the cost of 
these articles to a point far lower than was ever before known 
in the country. The minority report states Garfield^s views in 
regard to amending our tariff system in this very succinct and 
practical manner, to wit : 



114 THE LIFE OF GEX. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

" The undersigned agree that in many respects the tariff sys- 
tem should be amended. Where rates are exorbitant they 
sliould be reduced as rapidly and as far as the wants of the 
revenue and the prosperity of our great national industries will 
permit. There are articles m the tariff on wools and woollena 
that may be reduced ; and perhaps the whole group can safely 
bear some reduction. But on the whole, no part of our tarifl 
system has been more amply vindicated by experience than that 
which relates to wools and woollens. The foundations of these 
provisions were laid in 18G1 ; but in 1807 the existing rates 
were established, after a long and exhaustive investigation, and 
with the concurrence of the two interests which had theretofore 
been in opposition. 

'' The btisisof that legislation was this : that upon the several 
grades of imported wool a duty should be imposed sufficient to 
promote the growth of sheep husbandry in the United States. 
A specific duty was then imposed on woollen goods, as near as 
possible equal to the duty put upon the wool which entered into 
the manufacture. This was not protection, but simply an 
equivalent duty, which placed the woollen manufacturer on the 
free-trade level. To this specific duty was then added a duty 
of 35 per centum ad valon^m on woollen goods, as a protection 
to the manufacturer against foreign com])etition. This adjust- 
ment of the law has remained substantially unchanged for thir- 
teen years ; and during the six years preceding the adjustment 
the law contained similar though less complete provisions. 

'' With this preliminary statement the undersigned invite 
attention to the results of this legislation. 

"In 1836 the wool product of the United States was esti- 
mated at 42 millions of pounds per annum ; in 1860, according 
to the census, it had ^ risen to 60 million pounds per annum ; 
under the operations of the Morrill Tariff the product had risen 
in 1867 to 147 millions of pounds per annum ; in 1877 it had 
risen to 208 million pounds per annum ; and it is now estimated 
to be 250 million pounds per annum. In the twenty-four years 
preceding the war the wool product of this country had in- 
creased but 40 per cent ; while the present annual product of 
wool is 400 per cent greater than that of twenty years ago. 

" The development of our sheep husbandry has been most re- 
markable in the West and South. In 1862 Messrs. Hollister & 
Dibbles introduced 400 merino ewes into California, where 
sheep husbandry at that time was almost unknown. Now Cali- 
fornia takes the lead of all the States of the Union, and produces 
not less than fifty million pounds of wool per annum, an amount 



THE LIFE OF GEK. JAMES A. GAKFIELD. 115 

nearly equal to the total wool product of the United States in 
1860 'Hie growth of the wool interest has been hardly less 
rapid in Texas, which now occupies the second rank as a wool- 
crrownng State. . , . , • 

" With this vast increase in the quantity, the improvement in 
quality has been equally marked. While the farmers of the 
United States have been thus enabled to increase their food 
supply and increase the raw material for the clothing ot our 
people, the effect of the tariff on woollens has been correspond- 
in"ly beneficent. In 1860 we were largely dependent for our 
clSthing upon foreign wool-growers and foreign manufacturers, 
at such prices as they were able to dictate Now the woo lien 
fabrics used by our people are mainly manufactured by tJie skill 
and labor of "our own artisans from the product ot our own 

°'^' No attentive observer who visited the Centennial Exposition 
failed to notice the astonishment with which the French and 
Eno-lish manufacturers examined the fine cloths produced l)y 
AnTerican looais ; and no feature of that great exhibition reflect- 
ed more credit upon American enterprise and skill. As a reve- 
nue measure the Tariff of 1867 on wools and woollens has been 
very effective, having produced $360,000,000 of revenue in the 
last thirteen years-an average of $28,000,000 per annum. 

"The bill of the committee destroys the adjustments of the 
existing tariff on wool and woollens, and wholly disregards the 
relations which these two branches of industry sustain to eacli 
other Should it become a law, it will be impossible for our 
farmers to compete in the market with the mestiza wools of 
South America ; and it will be equally impossible for our manu- 
facturers to compete with those of France and England. Ut 
course any legislation that destroys the woollen manufactures is 
equally destructive to sheep husbandry, for the farmer would 
no longer have a market for his wool. That nation can hardly 
be called independent which does not possess the materials and 
the skill to clothe its own people. 

" For a more detailed statement of the effects of this bill 
upon our wool and woollen industries, we refer to the very able 
and instructive letter, hereto appended (marked A), of Mr John 
L. Hayes, secretary of the National Association of ^\ool Manu- 
facturers. To this letter is also appended a letter (marked h) 
of Mr. William Whitman, a leading manufacturer of Boston, 

" in reference to the provisions of the committee's bill which 
reduce the duties upon stoneware and crockeryware— an inter- 



116 THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

esting and important industry of recent origin in this country- 
attention is invited to the accompanying letter (marked C) of 
Mr. Homer Laughlin, of East Liverpool, Ohio, chairman of the 
executive committee of the United States Potters' Association, 
and also the letter of Hon. I. D. Blake, of New Jersey (mark- 
ed U). 

" Other features of the committee's bi'l are equally open to 
just criticism ; but enough has been said to indicate the spirit 
of hostility to our national industries which pervades it, and 
the partial and unjust treatment of the various subjects which 
it embraces." 

It would be far easier to fill a whole volume with interesting 
extracts from the speeches of General Garfield on the Tariff 
than it is to select from the numerous illustrations of the states- 
manship he has displayed on this question those which it is con- 
sistent with the limits of this book to use ; but if all of 
his public utterances were published together in chronological 
order they would only enhance, by the multiplicity of illustra- 
tions, the impression that must be made on any fair-minded 
and intelligent man by the few extracts which have been given ; 
and the most complete collection would only the more effect- 
ually and variously prove the consistency of his policy on this 
subject. From the beginning of his public life he has favored 
the Protection that would lead to liberating the protected arti- 
cles to Free Trade. He has always been opposed to merely pro- 
hibitory protection, and has been, in favor of a tariff which 
would enable our people to fairly compete with the world and 
to keep our national industries alive. He has opposed a tariff 
on any article so high as to encourage manufacturers to form 
monopolizing combinations, in the absence of foreign competi- 
tion. In the maintenance of this middle ground he has been 
exposed to the attacks of two extreme classes. The first class 
is that of Free Traders, who want Free Trade at once, and who 
forget that, even if it were practicable, Congress is not merely a 
debating society,, but the representative of vast numbers of dis- 
tinct local interests, all of which have to be considered and 
harmonized by any leader who attempts to accomplish actual re- 



THE LIFE OF GEJ^". JAMES A. GARFIELD. 117 

formatory legislation. On the other hand, he has had to stand 
the fire of extreme Protectionists, because they wanted their own 
private interests furthered by legislation, without regard to the 
general interests. He says, himself, of his attitude, that tlie po- 
sition he has held on the Tariff question is exceptional in his 
career, in this respect : that it has been a middle between two 
extremes. He says : " I have usually been at one pole or the 
other ; there I stood on the equator, and there insisted that the 
true doctrine was the point of stable equilibrium, where we 
could hold a tariff that would not be knocked down every time 
the Free Traders got into power, and boosted up every time the 
Protectionists got into power, but to give the country a stable 
policy where the tendency would be toward amelioration all the 
While. I have held that equitable ground throughout, and held 
It against the assaults, now from one side and now^ from the 
other, and I estimate it one of the greatest of my achievements 
in public life to have held that eqai])oi8e." 

In spite of the well-known consistency of his record on the 
Tariff, it has been his fortune, as it has been that of other great 
statesmen, to be the victim of gross misapprehensions as to par- 
ticular declarations of his views, or as to his acts in Congress. 
For instance, at a time when Secretary Boutwell regarded it 
as of the utmost importance to our credit abroad that the English 
statesmen and people should understand the nature of the fight 
which our soundest statesmen were making in behalf of an 
honest currency, he sent to Mr. Gladstone and to Mr. Bright a 
copy of Garfield's then recent speech on the currency question, 
which the Secretary regarded as highly creditable to American 
statesmanship. In recognition of the ability and soundness of 
this argument, Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Bright had General Gar- 
field elected an honorary member of the Cobden Club, an honor 
rarely conferred except in recognition of distinguished states- 
manship or ability in treating economic subjects. From this 
simple fact it was hastily assumed that General Garfield had 
won the favor of a Club identified with the prop.-igandism of 
Free Trade by liis position on the Tariff, while, in fact, the 



118 THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

thing which obtained for him this unexpected compliment was 
a speech in which there was not the least reference to the Tariff 
question. 

A still more annoying misapprehension grew out of the discus- 
sions, dunang the last session of Congress, on the question of re- 
moving the duty from wood-pulp. As the newspaper interest 
■w^as generally and naturally in favor of this reduction, it is not 
at all strange that considerable criticism was called out by a mis- 
apprehension of Garfield's position. This misapprehension was 
due to the circulation, among all the newspapers of the coun- 
try, of a misstatement as to what his position was, and of a 
charge that he was responsible for maintaining an odious mo- 
nopoly in the manufacture of paper. If Garfield had been at all 
disposed to cringe and curry favor with the greatest, and some- 
times the most dangerous, power in this country, that of the 
Press, he would have avoided taking the stand which he did in 
regard to this matter ; but he treated the paper manufacture in 
the same broad spirit in which he treated the iron manufacture, 
as to which his course at one time exposed him to a good many 
"shrieks of locality." He was determined not to budge an 
inch under the concentrated fire of ever so many newspapers 
that had not taken the trouble to learn the facts before pro- 
nouncing judgment. In regard to the duty on wood-pulp, there 
were, of course, some newspapers that favored protection on 
other articles and did not want any tariff on the materials used 
in paper manufacture. These papers were willing to support 
Protection as a system, but thought it was quite consistent and 
reasonable for them to be exempted from its operation, as re- 
gards their own business. To such a philosophy as that he 
could not give his assent. He was willing to reduce the duty 
on wood-pulp as low as it could be reduced without destroying 
an industry which in a few years had assumed formidable pro- 
portions, and had largely aided in reducing the price of paper 
from twenty-seven cents a pound to five and one half cents a 
pound. The discovery of the German inventor who conceived the 
idea of supplying the growing demand for paper material by the 



THE LIFE OF GEi^. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 119 

Simple process of grinding soft wood into pulp had given such a 
sudden and vast accession to the stock of paper material that the 
effect of its introduction was a steady and rapid reduction of 
prices of the manufactured article. In fact, without this discov- 
ery, it is difficult to imagine how the demand for paper could have 
been supplied or prices kept within any reasonable limits. For 
nearly a century there had been a growing competition in tlie 
world between reading and rags. The readers had multiplied 
their demands much faster than the supply of rags had been kept 
up. It had finally reached the point that Germany and other 
foreign countries discouraged the exportation of rags, and Amer- 
ican paper manufacturers had been obliged to establish branch 
mills in Egypt for the reduction of rags to pulp. It was not until 
the discovery of the availability of soft wood to supply this im- 
portant demand of civilization that there seemed to be any possi- 
bility of keeping up the cheap manufacture of one of the most 
essential elements of our progress. There was great distrust of 
the new discovery at first, and it was not until the owners of 
the wood-pulp patents established paper-mills of their own that 
the utility of the new discovery was vindicated, and from that 
time the growth of this branch of industry was remarkably 
rapid, so that fifty-seven wood-pulp-mills were put in operation, 
and have turned out such a mass of cheap material for paper that 
the whole industry has assumed a new phase. The duty on 
paper pulp was twenty per cent. General Garfield proposed to 
reduce this duty to ten per cent, which he thought would about 
reach the lowest point consistent with preventing our own home 
production from being overslaughed by importations of wood- 
pulp from Canada, where no royalty was jDaid to the owners of 
the patent. 

This is the whole story of his connection with the wood-pulp 
duty. It was a simple matter in itself, but he probably had to 
encounter more newspaper criticism, a great deal of it from 
some of his most sincere admirers and supporters, than for 
any other act of his Congressional life. He appreciated this 
from the first, understood it, disliked it, but did not fear it, and 



120 THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

did not vary his policy a hair's-breadth from the strict line 
which he has pursued from the beginning of his Congressional 
career, in deciding as to the details of Protection, On the 
whole, it is probable that most of the newspaper editors who 
favored him with indignant execrations think all the more of him 
at present because he was so steady and unmoved, even by the 
clamor of the Press. He had no selfish motive whatever to stand 
by this particular duty on wood-pulp. There was not a paper- 
mill in his district. Among the most earnest advocates of the 
abolition of the duty were editors who were his warmest per- 
sonal friends. It was easy for him to have evaded any contest 
of this sort, or to have yielded. He did neither. He per- 
formed his duty, took all the attacks on himself good-naturedly, 
and was very little disturbed by them. 

{Garfield to B. A. Hinsdale.) 

Washington, October 14, 1865. 

I have read the hibtory and philosophy of the Tarifif question very thorough- 
ly, though I have not yet finii^hed it. When I see you I want to give you the 
salient points in the history of British commercial policy ; it is very curious and 
interesting. . . . 

In the literary way I have fallen upon one of the finest things 1 have ever 
met. It is Walter Savage Landor's " Pericles and Aspasia," which gives in the 
most vivid and beautiful style the best summary 1 have ever seen of the spirit 
and character of Greek history, politics, philosophy and literature. It has been 
a very rich treat to us all. We are yet iii the midst of it. 

^ {Garfield to B. A. Ili/isdale.) 

Washington, December 20, 1879. 
I have noticed the insincere and absurd talk of the politicians about high 
tariff bills. Put these two things together: "Garfield is too valuable a man in 
the House to be spared," " Garfield is unsound on the tariff, and ought not to be 
elected to the Senate." Yet these arguments are used by the same men. If I 
were to consult my own preference entirely, apart from public opinion, and if I 
could be sure of continued robust health, 1 would prefer to remain in the House ; 
but the bone-breaking work that position has brought upon me for the last few 
years admonishes me that my final break-dowu of health must soon come if 1 
continue where I am. Tbe Senate is a smaller body, and I shall there probably 
escape (he responsibilities and labors of leadership. Then it would eeem churl- 
ish to stand in the way of the reasonable ambition of my friends in the Nine- 
teenth District, and so, if the Senatorship comes toine, 1 Bhall take it ; but with 
some sadness and regret. Tiie talk of the newspapers about the succcs^orship 
.las been premaluroaud cnibanasaing to all of us. 



CHAPTER XI. 

COMMITTEE WORK. 

So far as the national reputation of members of Congress is 
concerned, it is mostly founded on their more important speeches 
and measures. So far as their reputation among Congressmen is 
concerned, the ability, fidelity, ahd judgment with which com- 
mittee work is performed is a much more decisive test of rela- 
tive standing. There always have been in Congress a few mem- 
bers who seldom made speeches of any length, and yet com- 
manded unusual respect from their fellow-members, and 
wielded a very large influence, from their familiarity with the 
details which are only learned in committees. 

Garfield has fairly won a distinguished reputation in both 
ways. In his speeches, which are familiar to all our people, he 
has vindicated the right to the leadership of his party in the 
House, which was accorded to him by common consent when 
Mr. Blaine left the House. In the arduous duties devolving 
upon him as a member of most important committees he has 
won the high respect of his fellow-members of successive Con- 
gresses, without regard to their party predilections. 

His first assignment, when he entered Congress, to committee 
work, was a very natural one. Coming fresh from the army, and 
from a position requiring as much knowledge of army organiza- 
tion, needs and other details as was required of the commanding 
general whose chief of staff he was, his services were at once 
sought for the Committee on Military Affairs, then by far the 
most important in the House. No member of that committee 
contributed so much to its knowledge of the actual condition 
and needs of the army. His reports were models of fulness 
and accuracy, in dealing with the various questions that cam© 
before tlie committee. 



122 THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

The constitution of the Committee on Military Affairs in the 
38th Congress was as follows, the names being given in the 
order of precedence : 

Robert C. Schenck, of Ohio. 
John F. Farnsworth, of Illinois. 
George H. Yeaman, of Kentucky. 
James A. Garfield, of Ohio. 
Benjamin Loan, of Missouri. 
Moses F. Odell, of New York. 
Henry C. Deming, of Connecticut. 
F. W. Kellogg, of Michigan. 
Archibald McAllister, of Pennsylvania. 

It was somewhat of a surprise to the Speaker of the House 
when the 39th Congress assembled in 1865, and Garfield was asked 
by the Speaker if he had any request to make about the com- 
position of committees, to hear Garfield say that he had but one 
request, and that was that he should be left off from the Military 
Committee and assigned to that of Ways and Means ; and yet the 
former committee had before it the great work of reorganizing the 
army, and other difficult and important questions, involving the 
exercise of a great deal of power and wisdom. But Garfield's 
vigorous and prescient mind was quick to anticipate and leap 
into the new emergencies that were beginning to be fore- 
shadowed, and he wanted to put himself in the place where the 
line of his duty would put him most completely in the way of 
preparation. It was his theory that the great coming question 
was that of finance, and he was determined to be prepared for 
its discussion. From that early period in his Congressional 
career dates the beginning of that wonderful growth in the mas- 
tery of all the questions of detail about tariff, taxation, currency, 
and the public debt, which has marked all his public utter- 
ances. 

The Committee on Ways and Means in the 89th Congress con- 
sisted of the following able statesmen : 

Justin S. Morrill, of Vermont. 
Samuel Hooper, of Massachusetts. 



THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 123 

James Brooks, of New York. 
James A. Garfield, of Ohio. 
John Wentworth, of Illinois. 
RoscoE CoNKLiNG, of Ncw York. 
James R. Moorhead, of Pennsylvania. 
William B. Allison, of Iowa. 
John Hogan, of Missouri. 

In the 40th Congress there was a just recognition of his ser- 
vices as a member of the Committee on Military Affairs m the 
38th Congress, by his appointment as chairman of that commit- 
tee by the Speaker. The committee was constituted as follows : 

James A. Garfield, of Ohio. 
William A. Pile, of Missouri. 
John H. Ketcham, of New ^ ork. 
Henry D. Washburn, of Indiana. 
Grenville M. Dodge, of Iowa. 
Green B. Raum, of Illinois. 
Isaac R. Hawkins, of Tennessee. 
Charles Sitgreaves, of New Jersey. 
Benjamin R. Power, of Pennsylvania. 

In the 41st Congress the Speaker made recognition both of 
the acknowledged ability and research of Garfield m regard to 
all the financial questions, and of the newly acquired importance 
of the Committee on Banking and Currency, by makmg him its 
chairman. The committee consisted of the following mem- 

James a. Garfield, of Ohio. 
John Lynch, of Maine. 
Norman B. Judd, of Illinois. 
John Coburn, of Indiana. 
Worthington C. Smith, of Vermont. 
John B. Packer, of Pennsylvania. 
Israel G. Lash, of North Carolina. 
Samuel S. Cox, of New York. 
Thomas S. Jones, of Kentucky. _ 
Horatio C. Burchard, of Illinois. 

He was also appointed on the Select Committee on the Ninth 
Census, in which he occupied the second place, although the 



L24. THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GAIiflELD. 

great burden of shaping the work of the committee fell upon 
him, at the request of the Speaker, who desired him to yield the 
place out of courtesy to William B. Stokes, of Tennessee. The 
labors devolved on this committee were very arduous, and the 
results of their work, and especially of General Garfield's direct- 
ing share in it, can be seen in the official reports. No preced- 
ing committee on this subject had ever made such an exhaustive 
and scientific presentation of the ends to be achieved by a na- 
tional census, or of the means by which they could most readily 
and certainly be effected. The committee was composed as 
follows : 

"William B. Stokes, of Tennessee. 

James A. Garfield, of Ohio. 

Nathaniel P. Banks, of Massachusetts. 

William B. Allison, of Iowa. 

Addison J. Laflin, of New York. 

Shelby M. Cullom, of Illinois, 

Martin W. AVilkinson, of Minnesota. 

Richard J. Haldeman, of Pennsylvania. 

John G. Schumacher, of New York. 

He was also appointed a member of the Committee on Rules, 
which is always made up with especial reference to the parlia- 
mentary knowledge of its members. The committee was con- 
stituted as follows : 

The Speaker (James G. Blaine). 
Nathaniel P. Banks, of Massachusetts. 
Thomas W. Ferry, of Michigan. 
James A. Garfield, of Ohio. 
James Brooks, of New York. 

In the 42d Congress Garfield was made chairman of the Com- 
mittee on Appropriations, on which had been devolved the 
most responsible duties and the greatest powers previously as- 
signed to the Committee of Ways and Means. The committee 
was constituted as follows : 

James A. Garfield, of Ohio. 
Aaron A. Sargent, of California. 



THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 125 

Oliver J. Dickey, of Pennsylvania. 
Freeman Clarke, of New York. 
Frank W. Palmer, of Iowa. 
Eugene Hale, of Maine. 
William E. Niblack, of Indiana. 
Samuel S. Marshall, of Illinois. 
Thomas Swann, of Maryland. 

Garfield was continued on the Committee on Rules, which con- 
sisted of 

The Speaker (James G. Blaine). 
Nathaniel P. Banks, of Massachusetts. 
James A. Garfield, of Ohio. 
Samuel S. Cox, of New York. 
Samuel J. Randall, of Pennsylvania. 

In the 43d Congress Garfield was reappointed chairman of 
the Committee on AjDpropriations, which consisted of the fol- 
lowing members : 

James A. Garfield, of Ohio. 

Eugene Hale, of Maine. 

William A. Wheeler, of New York. 

Charles O'Neill, of Pennsylvania. 

Henry H. Starkweather, of Connecticut. 

William Loughridge, of Iowa. 

James N. Tyner, of Indiana. 

Isaac C. Parker, of Missouri. 

Samuel S. Marshall, of Illinois. 

Thomas Swann, of Maryland. 

John Hancock, of Texas. 

As during two previous Congresses, he was appointed on the 
Committee on Rules, wliich consisted of 

The Speaker (James G. Blaine). 
Horace Maynard, of Tennessee. 
James A. Garfield, of Ohio. 
Samuel S. Cox, of New York. 
Samuel J. Randall, of Pennsylvania. 

In the 44th Congress Garfield was placed, on the Committee 



126 THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

on Ways and Means. As the House -was Democratic, he was 
naturally placed below all the Democrats on the committee, 
and below William D. Kelley, who was much his senior in Con- 
gressional service. The committee was constituted as follows : 

William R. Morrison, of Illinois, 
Fernando Wood, of New York. 
John Hancock, of Texas. 
Philip L. Thomas, of Maryland. 
Benjamin H. Hill, of Georgia. 
Chester W. Chapin, of Massachusetts. 
J. Randolph Tucker, of Virginia. 
William D. Kelley, of Pennsylvania. 
Jajmes a. Garfield, of Ohio. 
Horatio C. Bltichard, of Illinois. 
Henry Watterson, of Kentucky. 

The last-named only filled a vacancy toward the end of this 
Congress, and his position on the committee was probably due to 
his own request. 

In the 45th Congress the Committee on Ways and Means con- 
sisted of the following members : 

Fernando Wood, of New York. 
J. Randolph Tucker, of Virginia. 
Milton Sayler, of Ohio. 
William M. Robbins, of North Carolina. 
Henry R. Harris, of Georgia. 
Randall L. Gibson, of Louisiana. 
James Phillips, of Connecticut. 
William D. Kelley, of Pennsylvania. 
James A. Garfield, of Ohio. 
Horatio C. Burchard, of Illinois. 
Nathaniel P. Banks, of Massachusetts. 

The Committee on Rules in this Congress consisted of 

The Speaker (Samuel J. Randall). 
Alexander H. Stephens, of Georgia. 
Milton Sayler, of Ohio. 
Nathaniel P. Banks, of Massachusetts. 
James A. Garfield, of Ohio. 



THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 127 

In the 46th Congress the Committee on Ways and Means con- 
sisted of 

Fernando Wood, of New ^ ork, 
J. Randolph Tucker, of Virginia. 
Randall L. Gibson, of Louisiana. 
James Phillips, of Connecticut. 
^ William R. Morrison, of Illinois. 

R. Q. Mills, of Texas. 
John S. Carlisle, of Kentucky. 
William H. Felton, of Georgia. 
James A. Garfield, of Ohio. 
William D. Kelley, of Pennsylvania. 
Omar D. Conger, of Michigan. 
William P. Frye, of Maine. 
Martin II. Dwinnell, of Minnesota. 

The Committee on Rules consisted of : 

The Speaker (Samuel J. Randall). 
Alexander H. Stephens, of Georgia. 
Joseph C. Blackburn, of Kentucky. 
James xV. Garfield, of Ohio. 
William P. Frye, of Maine. 

A good conception of the thoroughness with which Garfield 
discharged his onerous duties as chairman of the Committee on 
Appropriations may be formed from reading the speech which 
he made on "Revenues and Expenditures," on the 5th of 
March, 1874. With a pretty thorough knowledge of all the im- 
portant speeches that have been made in Congress since the 
foundation of the Government, I do not believe that there was 
ever before made in that body a presentation of the philosophy 
and methods of adjusting the revenues and appropriations of 
the Government which covered so much ground in so brief a 
space, or which disclosed so clearly the principles on which ap- 
propriations should be made. 

At the outset he announced his disagreement with the assump- 
tion implied in the common maxim that we should " cut our 
garment according to our cloth," which he admitted was cor- 
rect as applied to private affairs, but not at all applicable to the 



128 THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

wants of nations. "Our national expenditures," said he, 
" should be measured by the real interests and the proper needs 
of the Government. We should cut our garment so as to fit the 
person to be clothed. If he be a giant, we must provide cloth 
sufficient for a fitting garment." 

" It was the effort of the Committee on Appropriations," he 
said, " to find what are the real and vital necessities of the Gov- 
ernment ; to find what amount of money will suffice to meet all 
its honorable obligations, to carry on all its necessary and essen- 
tial functions, and to keep alive those public enterprises which 
the country desires its Government to undertake and accomplish. ^ ' 

He regarded it as unfortunate that the work of appropria- 
tions was not connected directly with the work of taxation, 
in which case '' the necessity of taxation would be a constant 
check upon extravagance, and the practice of economy would 
promise as its immediate result the pleasure of reducing taxa- 
tion." 

As to the effect of taxation on the people, he said that " they 
willingly bear the burdens of taxation when they see that their 
contributions arc honestly and wisely expended to maintain the 
government of their choice, and to accomplish those objects 
which they consider necessary for the public welfare. So far 
us the Government is concerned, the soundness of its financial 
affairs depends upon the annual surplus of its revenues over ex- 
penditures. A steady and constant revenue, drawn from sources 
that represent the prosperity of the nation, a revenue that grows 
with the growth of national wealth, and is so adjusted to 
the expenditures that a constant and considerable surplus is 
annually left in the treasury above all the necessary current de- 
mands — a surplus that keeps the treasury strong, that holds it 
above the fear of sudden panic, that makes it impregnable 
against all private combinations, that makes it a terror to stock- 
jobbing and gold-gambling — this is financial health." 

Reviewing the financial history of the Government, he called 
attention to the history and causes of deficits and of surpluses, 
and then passed to the wonderful history of the reduction of 



THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 129 

taxes since the war, and the effects of the reduction of revenue 
on this surplus. 

One of the most interesting portions of this thorough exam- 
ination into the workings of our system of appropriations and 
expenditures was an analysis of expenditures for the preceding 
fiscal year, from which at a glance any intelligent reader could 
ascertain precisely the amounts expended for every department 
of the Government — for the maintenance or construction of pub- 
lic works, for interest on our funded debt, and for all the vari- 
ous other objects of Government outlay. These expenditures 
he grouped in different classifications, with the usual analytic 
ability of his discussions of such questions, and took up in detail 
the objects in whose support retrenchment was practicable and 
advisable. Three classes of expenditures called for bis special 
attention, and his policy toward each of these illustrates his 
views of wise economy and expenditure. As to the expendi- 
tures on rivers and harbors, he called attention to the fact 
'' that in fifteen of the last thirty-four years not a dollar was 
appropriated for rivers and harbors in the United States. Our 
friends on the other side of the House, when they were^n 
power, believed in the doctrine that Congress had no right to 
make internal improvements, and in fifteen of their years of 
power our docks and piers were rotting and our harbors were 
filling up, because the theory of non-improvement left them to 
perish. More than seventy-five per cent of all that has ever 
been appropriated to open our rivers and clear out our harbors 
and make a highway for commerce on our coasts and upon our 
inland lakes and rivers has been appropriated since the war by 
the party now in power." 

These works, he said, he named only to praise them. *' They 
are carried on under the War Department, and no man, I be- 
lieve, has ever charged corruption in the expenditure of the 
money. But it is one of that class of expenditures that can 

in part be postponed, that need not be done in a year. It is well 
that enough has been done to make it possible for us to open 



130 THE LIFE OF GEN". JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

our internal avenues of commerce as the growth of trade re- 
quires." 

As to the expenditures for the maintenance of our light- 
house system he was equally liberal. Said he: "I look 
upon it as one of the wonders of our early history that 
during the first three months of the life of the first Con- 
gress our fathers struck out on a new line, unknown in the 
history of legislation, when they declared in one simple act that 
the light that gleamed from every Pharos on our shores should 
be free to the ships and sailors of all nations. Until recently 
the United States has stood absolutely alone in allowing the na- 
tions of the world to have the benefit of lights without charge. 
I always feel a keen sense of satisfaction when I am permitted 
to aid in making appropriations to keep these lights burning on 
our shores. The life-saving stations which have been added are 
expenses of the same character. I would do nothing to cripple 
these great interests." 

But as to another branch of public works, that of the con- 
struction of public buildings, he was as free in his condemna- 
tion of haste and extravagance as he had been of praise in re- 
gard to the two preceding classes. 

A late illustration of the grasp of Garfield's study of 
the revenues and expenditures of the Government which 
was prosecuted in the course of his service on the Committee 
on Appropriations may be found in an article of his in the 
North American Review for June, 1879. In that exceedingly 
clear and readable article he quoted a passage from a speech 
which he made on revenues and expenditures in the House 
in 1872, which, for the interest and attractiveness with which 
he succeeded in investing a subject that is generally regarded 
as forbidding by reason of its dryness and technicalities, may 
well be compared with that brilliant budget of Gladstone's 
earlier parliamentary career, whiph has been so famous. In 
this speech he gave his philosophy of expenditures and appro- 
priations, and prophesied, among other things, at what time in 
our history we could probably reach a peace level of expendi- 



THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 131 

tures after the war— at what time we could get down so low 
that we could not get any lower, and that the natural growth 
of the country would reciuire a revival of trade and rise of 
prices ; and in forecasting the time he took a very large risk in 
saying that " at a certain period bo far ahead it will be found 
that we shall touch bottom on the scale of reduction, and at 
that tune we shall probably get oui interest down to such 
a figure, and our annual expenditures down to such a figure, 
and thereupon and thereafter the growth of the country will 
make the peace increase starting up again necessary." The 
period he had fixed on was about the end of 1876. In his 
North American article he showed that his only mistake was 
that this revival came about a year later than the time which he 
predicted in 1872, and the figures were almost identical. This 
prediction was not a mere speculative theory, but was on the 
basis of an immense induction of historical facts, which con- 
vinced him that the expenditures of a war could not be reduced 
so as to strike a peace level short of a period twice the length 
of the war itself after it. He showed that this was the case in 
England's wars, and that it was so in all our wars from the be- 
ginning ; that the expenditures reached their height, of course, 
at the close of the war, then they began to drop gradually down 
an inclined plane until they struck the new level of peace, 
where the rise began again gradually, and this was arrived at in 
a period twice as long after a war as the length of the war it> 
self. Our war was substantially five years long, ending finan- 
cially in 1866. Add ten years, and the period of decline fixed 
on the basis of this calculation would extend to 1876 ; and he 
said in his speech in 1872, "We shall reach our peace level 
then " He made an analysis, showing what were our war ex- 
penditures and those resulting from the war, and what the 
peace expenses were, proving that the peace expenses would 
increase all the time, growing with the growth of the country, 
and that the waiv expenses would decrease. There were two 
processes; but the war expenditures were so great that their 
decrease would be more rapid than the peace increase ; and after 



132 THE LIFE OF GEI^". JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

a while those two lines would meet, and the sloping incline of 
peace would come. 

Besides the work devolved upon him in the regular and 
special committees to which I have referred, Garfield has been 
called on from time to time to serve on special committees re- 
quiring an unusual amount of labor, care, and judgment ; and 
special occasions of great magnitude have given to the work of 
the regular committees to which he belonged unusual responsi- 
bilities and labors. For instance, the investigation into the 
causes of the gold panic, which was ordered by the House in 
December, 1869, was devolved on the Committee on Banking 
and Currency, of which he was chairman. It is probable that 
no special subject of investigation by a Congressional committee 
attracted more universal attention at the time than did this, 
and for very obvious reasons. Charges had been made calcu- 
lated to create the impression that there had been some sort of 
connection between the gigantic and reckless operations of 
New York gamblers in gold and the action of the President of 
the United States in regard to the selling of gold. There were 
few intelligent people who gave to these charges any sort of 
credence ; but there was a sufficient array of circumstances to 
give a basis for a swarm of calumnies likely to affect seriously 
the reputation of the President, and of course to impair the 
respect in which our Government and institutions were held 
abroad. It was deemed advisable, therefore, that the transac- 
tions which had occasioned so much comment and scandal should 
be rigorously investigated and the bottom facts brought to the 
surface. The conduct of this investigation by General Garfield 
was the subject of universal admiration at the time, and of most 
complimentary comments by the press of New York, particularly 
the tact and adroitness and firmness with which he managed 
and drew out that most remarkable and irrepressible of wit- 
nesses, Mr. James Fisk, Jr. The results of the most thorough 
inquiry were embodied in the report of the committee, and its 
etatements of all of the essential facts developed by their inquiry 
were so clear and satisfactory that no question has arisen since 



THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



133 



as to the accuracy of the committee's findings. The reputation 
of the Executive was vindicated, while the nefariousness and 
recklessness of the conspiracy were exposed in the most stnkmg 
manner. 

{GarjiM to CoL A. F. Rockwell.) 

HiKAM, Ohio, AugnstSO, 1869. 
Tt seems as thou-h each year added more to the work that falls to my share. 
Thi larnThlvrtt man/weightof the census bill and t^^e -port to carry, 
Ind the Share of the Ohio campaign that falls to me, and an «^diUon to aUt^^^^^^ 
I am runnin- in debt and building a hou.e in Washington. On looking ovtr I 
LrdThad;aidoutoverS5,000,sinceIflrstwenttoC^^^^^^^^^ 
all this is*a dead loss ; so, finding an old staff-officer (ilaj. D. G. S^^^^' ^ "^;^ 
Uated enough to enable me to getalot on the corner of Thirteenth and I Streets, 
no h oppo^site to Franklin Square, and I have got a house three quai^ers done 
It ma;, be a losing business, but I hope I shall be able to sell it when I am done 
with it, so as to save myself and the rent. 

(Garfield to Col. A. F. Roclcioell.) 

Hiram, Ohio, August 6, 1870. 

I have at last reached home in the green fields and pure air of the country 
and fdrX first time in many months have a few days of comparative rest now 
bpfnre the onening of the fall campaign. 

My work during the last Congressional year has been harder than ev.r be- 
fore llave eighty days' hard work last summer and fall to the census, and, 
lugh/crelm^iU successfully through t^ House, it ^f ^d m f e Se.a^ 
Then I spent forty days on the Gold Panic Investigation and Report, nea ly all 
Te work of which I did. Then I gave three or four -e^^^; .^^f ^f ^^^^J^^, 
Tar^ Bill and more than that amount to the CniTcncy Bill, which I had charge of 
Ldwhichcreatedalongandstrong combat. Add to this all the usua out.de 
workandtwo cases in the Supreme Court, one of which I a;^-^ ^^J^^^^^^f^ 
von will see that it filled my days and many of my mghts with about as close 
^"bb^ngSfwascapableof performing. On the whole, I have done as much as 

^^'rairyrchTbn"yourdis^^^ the Indian a.airs. Youcan 

see how nearly impossible it is for a member of Congress, nearly a thousand 
mileaaway from the scene of Indian events, and knowing no hing ^^ .^^^^ ^« 
^arnsfromvac^ue and contradictory reports, to understand the real situation 
and to P-ide wise and efficient means for managing a subject so difficu U and 
L impossible to handle by general laws or regulations. I have from the &:8 
been in favor of the transfer of the Indian Bureau to the War ^^^pa tment b t 
the Piegan massacre and the personal quarrel of which you speak Preventedthe 
transfer I twice got the biU through the House. I shall take the liberty to 
write to Secretary Cox and quote «ome passages from your letter. 



134 THE LIFE OF GEN. JAJHES A. GARFIELD. 

(Garfidd to Col. A. F. Rockwell. ) 

WASHrNGTON, December 13, 1871. 
I am now np to my eyes in the work of the Committee on Appropriations, 
of which I am Chairman, though I do manage to steal a little time from work 
and sleep, almost every day, to read over carefully a few lines from Horace, to 
keep the breath of classical life in my body. 

{Garfidd to Col. A. F. Eockwdl.) 

Washington, March 5, 1875. 

At Last the long, hard struggle is over, and I lie stranded, like a ship ashore, 
water-logged and shattered by the battle of wind and waves. 

You will perhaps think I am always saying the same thing at the end of a 
session ; but, I am sure, no other five days of my Congressional life have been 
so crowded with heavy work as those just ended. Forty-eight hours ago six of 
my appropriation bills were in peril. Two of them had not passed the House 
the first time, and the others were in the Senate or in Conference Committees. 
They were all passed in good shape at half -past eleven a.m. yesterday. 

The amount of intellectual work I have done, and the physical strain which 
has accompanied it, is something more than everything I have ever done before 



{Garfidd to Col. A. F. Eockwdl.) 

Washington, December 4, 1875. 
The committees have not yet been announced, but you will probably see 
them before this reaches yon. I have followed rather austerely the rule of self- 
respect, and have kept aloof from all combinations. I have asked nothing, nor 
have T permitted my friends to ask anything for me. I was gratified and 
surprised when the Republican members of the Ohio delegation united in a 
unanimous expression of their desire that I should be appointed Chairman of 
the Committee on Appropriations, but I asked them not to make any requests 
for me. 



CHAPTER Xn. 

THE EXTRA SESSION OF 1879. 



Kg Republican leader of the House ever had devolved upon 
him a responsibility so great or a duty so arduous as were 
thrown upon Garfield by the extra session of Congress, in 1879, 
called within three weeks after the adjournment of the regular 
session, on the 4th of March, which left the Executive and 
Legislative branches of the Government in a deadlock of un- 
yielding antagonism, and all the branches of the Government 
without the supplies essential to their maintenance. In fact, it 
may be said that no such exigency was ever before presented to 
any leader of the House. Before that time Congress had never 
undertaken to condition the performance of its duty to support 
the Government on the acquiescence of the Executive in the 
demands of the former. Legislation, it is true, had been in- 
corporated in appropriation bills, which practically left the 
President little discretion. But these legislative " riders" did 
not amount to a formal and formidable declaration of the in- 
tention of Congress to coerce the Executive. And this was 
precisely the appalling situation which was presented when the 
winter session of 1878-9 came to its unsatisfactory close. In the 
stormy debates which preceded this deadlock, Garfield, as the 
responsible leader of the Republican minority, had fairly offered 
to the majority not so much a compromise of the principles 
involved in the legislation which the majority attempted to 
force the Executive to accept, as a Conservative Republican re- 
vision, adapted to the times, of the legislation which had been 
put upon the statute-books in periods of essentially different 
character. The very fairness of his proposition and the broad 
statesmanship which he displayed in the closing debates of that 
session had alienated from him, to a greater or less extent, many 



136 THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

Republican members of Congress with whom he had been in 
most cordial co-operation, and who afterward heartily rallied 
under his leadership. 

From this fact, and from the lack of intimate relations be- 
tween several Republican leaders in Congress and the President, 
the duties imposed on Garfield in the extra session were such 
as demanded in their performance the most sagacious judgment, 
and frequently the highest degree of moral courage. No leader 
of the party in either branch of Congress at any period was 
ever before placed in such a peculiar and delicate position. But 
he did not shrink from the straightforward performance of his 
duty, and its difliculty not only nerved him to greater efforts to 
maintain what he regarded as the only tenable position on 
which his party could stand, but what was far more important 
than this, to maintain the constitutional balance of power be- 
tween the three departments of the Government, whose contin- 
uance is absolutely essential to the preservation of our institu- 
tions. His speech in the House on the 29th of March shows 
the solemnity of his impression of the magnitude and perils of 
the crisis through which he was to pilot the w^ay to safety with 
honor. He did not shrink at the outset from stating what was 
really the most terrible indictment of the policy of the majority 
in Congress. Said he : 

" Mr. Chairman : I have no hope of being able to convey tcs 
the members of this House my own conviction of the very great 
gravity and solemnity of the crisis which this decision of the 
Chair and of the Committee of the Whole has brought upon 
this country. I wish I could be proved a false prophet in ref- 
erence to the result of this action. I wish I could be over- 
whelmed with the proof that I am utterly mistaken in my 
views. But no view I have ever taken has entered more deeply 
and more seriously into my convictions than this : that this 
House has to-day resolved to enter upon a revolution against the 
Constitution and Government of the United States. I do not 
know that that intention exists in the'minds of half the Repre- 
sentatives who occupy the other side of this hall. I hope it 
does not. I am ready to believe it does not exist to any large 
extent. But I mean to say the consequence of the programme 



THE LIFE OF GEiT. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



137 



just adopted, if persisted in, is nothing less than the total sub- 
version of this Government/' 

Then he reviewed the history of the struggle in the preceding 
session, and gave the history of the formation of the issue be- 
tween the two parties-the demands on the one side and the 
resistance on the other-and placed the grounds of his resist- 
ance on the broad principles of the Constitution He pointed 
out several ways in which our Government could be destroyed 
without armed revolution. For example, by a refusal on the 
part of the people to elect Representatives to Congress ; or a 
maiority of one branch or the other of Congress might, onthe 
first day of the session, vote to adjourn on the hour of meeting 
and continue to vote so at every session during the two years of 
the existence of that Congress ; or a majority of either body 
miaht vote down every bill to support tlie Government by ap- 
propriations. All these methods of destroying the Government 
are permitted by the Constitution, because the people ' being 
themselves the creators of all the agencies and forces to execute 
their own will, and choosing from themselves their Representa- 
tives to express that will in the forms of law, it would have been 
like a suggestion of suicide to assume that any of these great 
voluntary powers would be turned against the life of the Gov- 
ernment. Public oplnion-that great ocean of thought from 
whose height all heights and all depths are measured-was 
trusted as a power amply able, and always willing, to guard all 
the approaches on that side of the Constitution from any as- 
sault on the life of the nation.'' 

- Up to this hour," he continued, " our sovereign has never 
failed us There has never been such a retusal to exercise tho,e 
primU functions of sovereignty as either to endanger or crip- 
Kh^Government ; nor have the majority of the representa- 
ives of that sovereign in either house of Congress ever before 
announceftheir purpose to -e ^heir voluntary powers for its 
destruction. And now, for the first tune in our histmy'^^f ^ 
will add for the first time for at least two centuries in the lis- 
Torv of any English-speaking nation, it is proposed and insisted 



138 THE LIFE OF GEN". JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

that these voluntary powers shall be used for the destruction 
of the Government. I want it distinctly understood that 
the proposition which I read at the beginning of my remarks, 
and which is the programme announced to the American people 
to-day, is this : that if this House cannot have its own way in 
certain matters, not connected with appropriations, it will so 
use, or refrain from using, its voluntary powers as to destroy 
the Government." 

Going deep down to the foundations of the philosophy of our 
Government, he bottomed his whole argument on these compre- 
hensive propositions, which were ample to sustain the super- 
structure of illustration with which he strengthened and adorned 
it. Said he : 

"Our theory of law is free consent. That is the granite 
foundation of our whole superstructure. Nothing in the Re- 
public can be law^ without consent — the free consent of the 
House ; the free consent of the Senate ; the free consent of the 
Executive, or, if he refuse it, the free consent of two thirds of 
these bodies. Will any man deny that ? Will any man chal- 
lenge a line of the statement that free consent is the foundation 
rock of all our institutions ? And yet the programme announced 
two weeks ago was that if the Senate refused to consent to the 
demand of the House, the Government should stop. And the 
proposition was then, and the programme is now, that, although 
there is not a Senate to be coerced, there is still a third inde- 
pendent branch in the legislative power of the Government, 
whose consent is to be coerced at the peril of the destruction of 
this Government ; that is, if the President, in the discharge of 
his duty, shall exercise his plain constitutional right to refuse 
his consent to this proposed legislation, the Congress will so 
use its voluntary powers as to destroy the Government. This 
is the proposition which we confront ; and we denounce it as 
revolution." 

Although he was willing, at the regular session, to make 
reasonable amendments to the laws which it was proposed to 
carry on the backs of appropriation bills, he took the broad 
principle that, however inoffensive the proposition, if it was 
demanded "that as a matter of coercion it shall be adopted, 
against the free consent prescribed in the Constitution, every 



THE LIFE OF GEK. JAME5 A. GARFIELD. 139 

fair-minded man in America is bound to resist you, as much as 
though his own life depended upon tlie resistance." And he 
then challenged all comers to show a single instance in our 
history when this consent was coerced. " This," said he, " is 
the great, the paramount issue, which dwarfs all others into 
insignificance." 

Then, showing that the election law, which was denounced 
as so great an offence as to justify the destruction of the Gov- 
ernment rather than let it remain on the statute-books, was 
passed with the active co-operation of prominent Democratic 
members of both houses, and thus aggravating the criminality 
of their changed position, he intensified the point he made 
by stating that " the proposition now is that, after fourteen 
years have passed and not one petition from one American 
citizen has come to us asking that this law be repealed, while 
not one memorial has found its way to our desks complaining 
of the law, so far as I have heard, the Democratic House of 
Representatives now hold that if they are not permitted to force 
upon another house and upon the Executive against their con- 
sent the repeal of a law that Democrats made, this refusal shall 
be considered a sufficient ground for starving this Government 
to death." 

This phrase, " starving the Government to death," was one 
of those inspirational condensations of argument and truth 
which only occur to statesmen of creative and original minds. 
It covered the whole ground, reached to the vitals of the con- 
troversy, and exposed to the people the nature and the deadli- 
ness of the conspiracy that had tried to ambush itself under 
English precedents of redressing grievances that were totally 
inapplicable to our system of three independent, free, and equal 
branches of the Government. 

Without undertaking to review or to revive the special points 
of argument with which this speech and a following speech on 
the same subject on the 4th of April, fairly bristled, it is suffi- 
cient to quote one passage which stands a fair chance of going 
down to posterity and ot taking its place alongside of Web. 



140 THE LIFE OF GEN". JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

ster's defences of the Constitution against attacks prompted by 
the same spirit and originated in the same quarter. Said he : 

" Touching this question of Executive action, I remind the 
gentleman that in 1850 the National Democratic Convention, 
in session at Cincinnati, and, still later, the National Demo- 
cratic Convention of 1800, affirmed the right of the veto as one 
of the sacred rights guaranteed by our Government. Here is 
the resolution : 

" ' That we are decidedly opposed to taking from the President 
the qualified veto power by which. he is enabled, under restric- 
tions and responsibilities amply sufficient to guard the public 
interests, to suspend the passage of a bill whose merits cannot 
secure the approval of two thirds of the Senate and House of 
Representatives until the judgment of the people can be 
obtained thereon.' 

"The doctrine is that any measure which cannot be passed 
over a veto by a two thirds vote, has no right to become a law ; 
and the only mode of redress is an appeal to the people at the 
next election. That has been the Democratic doctrine from 
the earliest days — notably so from Jackson's time — until now, 

" In leaving this topic, let me ask what you would have said 
if, in 1861, the Democratic members of the Senate, being then 
a majority of that body, instead of taking the heroic course and 
going out to battle, had simply said, ' We will put on an ap- 
propriation bill an amendment declaring the right of any State 
to secede from the Union at pleasure, and forbidding the 
President or any officer of the Army or Navy of the United 
States from interfering with any State in its work of seces- 
sion.' Suppo'se they had said to the President, 'Unless you 
consent to the incorporation of this provision in an appropria- 
tion bill, we will refuse supplies to the Government.' Per- 
haps they could then have killed the Government by starva- 
tion ; but even in the madness of that hour, the leaders of 
rebellion did not think it worthy their manhood to put their 
, fight on tliat dishonorable ground. They planted themselves 
on the higher plane of battle and fought it out to defeat. 

" Now, by a method which the wildest secessionist scorned to 
adopt, it is proposed to make this new assault upon the life of 
the Republic. 

' ' Gentlemen, we have calmly surveyed this new field of con- 
flict ; we have tried to count the cost of the struggle, as we 
did that of 1861, before we took up your gage of battle. 
Though no human foresight could forecast the awful loss of 



THE LIFE OF GEN". JAMES A. GARFIELD. 141 

blood and treasure, yet in the name of liberty and union we 
accepted the issue and fought it out to the end. We made 
the appeal to our august sovereign, to the omnipotent public 
opinion of America, to determine whether the Union should 
perish at your hands. You know the result. And now law- 
fully, in the exercise of our right as Representatives, we take 
up the gage you have this day thrown down, and appeal again 
to our common sovereign to determine whether you shall be 
permitted to destroy the principle of free consent in legislation 
under the threat of starving the Government to death. 

" We are ready to pass these bills for the support of the Gov- 
ernment at any hour when you will offer them in the ordinary 
way, by the methods prescribed by the Constitution. If you 
offer those other propositions of legislation as separate meas- 
ures, we will meet you in the fraternal spirit of fair debate and 
will discuss their merits. Some of your measures many of us 
will vote for in separate bills. But you shall not coerce any inde- 
pendent branch of this Government, even by the threat of 
starvation, to surrender its voluntary powers until the question 
has been appealed to the sovereign and decided in your favor. 
On this ground we plant ourselves, and here we will stand to 
the end." 

In his speech on the 4th of April he reminded the Democratic 
members that they had only to wait two years, when they could 
have the three consents to all the legislation they wanted which 
are required by the letter and spirit of the Constitution, to 
wit, the free consent of the House, the free consent of the 
Senate and the free consent of the Executive, provided by that 
time they had convinced the people that the legislation they 
desired was needed and just. Until then he asked them to 
restrain their rage until they had the lawful power to strike 
down these statutes. But, lest he should be misunderstood, he 
added : 

" I said last session, and I have said since, that if you want this 
whole statute concerning the use of the Army at the polls torn 
from your books, I will help you to do it. If you will offer a 
naked proposition to repeal those two sections of the Revised 
Statutes named in the sixth section of this bill, I Avill vote with 
you. But you do not ask a repeal of those sections. Why ? 
They impose restrictions upon the use of the Army, limiting its 



142 THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

functions and punishing its officers for any infraction of these 
limitations ; but you ask to strike out a negative clause, there- 
by making new and affirmative legislation of the most sweeping 
and dangerous character. 

'' Your proposed modification of the law affects not the Army 
alone, but the whole civil power of the United States. ' Civil 
officers ' are included in these sections, and, if the proposed 
amendment be adopted, you deny to any civil officer of the 
United States any power whatever to summon the armed posse 
to help him enforce the processes of the law. If you pass the 
section in that form, you impose restrictions upon the civil 
authorities of the United States never before proposed in any 
Congress by any legislator since this Government began. I say, 
therefore, in the shape you propose this, it is much the worst 
of all your ' riders. ' In the beginning of this contest, we un- 
derstood that you desired only to get the Army away from the 
polls. As that would still leave the civil officers full power to 
keep the peace at the polls, I thought it was the least impor- 
tant and the least dangerous of your demands ; but as you have 
put it here, it is the most dangerous. If you re-enact it in the 
shape presented, it becomes a later law than the supervisors 
and marshals law, and pro tanto repeals the latter. As it stands 
now in the statute-book, it is the earlier statute, and is pj'o 
tanto itself repealed by the marshals law of 1871, and is there- 
fore harmless so far as it relates to civil officers. But if you 
put it in here, you deny the power of the marshals of the United 
States to perform their duties whenever a riot may require the 
use of an armed posse. ' ' 

The ablest and most specious Democratic plea in behalf of 
the scheme of coercing the Executive was made by that distin- 
guished jurist from Virginia, Mr. J. Randolph Tucker. He had 
most artfully used the deceptive and false precedent of the 
practice of the House of Commons of accompanying supply bills 
with a list of grievances to be redressed, to which Garfield 
replied : 

" The gentleman from Virginia says, ' Unless you let us ap- 
pend a condition which we regard a redress of grievances, we 
will let the Army be annihilated on the 30th day of next June 
by withholding supplies.' That is legitimate argument; that 
is a frank declaration of your policy. Let us examine the pro* 



THE LIFE OF GEX. JAMES A. GAKFIELD. 143 

position. What is the 'grievance' of which the gentleman 
complains ? He uses the word ' grievance ' in the old English 
sense, as though the king were thrusting himself in the way oi 
the nation by making a war contrary to the nation's wish. 
What is the ' grievance ' of which the gentleman complains \ 
His ' grievance ' is a law of the land— a law made by the repre- 
sentatives of the people— by all the forms of consent known to 
the Constitution. It is his ' grievance ' that he cannot get rid 
of this law by the ordinary and constitutional methods of 
appeal. [Applause.] When he can get rid of any law by the 
union of all the consents that are required to make or unmake 
a law, then he can lawfully get rid of it, whether it is a griev- 
ance or a blessing. But his method is first to call a law a 
' grievance ' and then try to get rid of it in defiance of the 
processes which the Constitution prescribes for the law-making 
power of the nation. I denounce his method as unconstitu- 
tional an«l revolutionary, and one that will result in far greater 
evil than that of which he complains." 

Through the whole of this controversy in the regular and in 
the extra session, Garfield bore himself not only with courage, 
which is a common attribute, but with a conscientious and in- 
dependent statesmanship which refused to be controlled even 
by the criticism and clamor of influential members of his own 
party. Throughout the whole he was not so much the partisan 
as he was the constitutional lawyer and the patriot. Believing 
in, thoroughly comprehending, and admiring with the whole 
force of his nature, the grandeur of the system of checks and 
balances and distributions of powers, which characterize our 
Government, he was as inflexible in the maintenance of his own 
convictions of right, against the pressure of friends, as he was 
fearless in meeting the assaults of political enemies who had 
attempted a desperate and revolutionary scheme. He was the 
central and commanding figure in all this great controversy— 
as important, in all respects, as that which Webster faced so 
grandly in 1832. As the prejudices, passions, and excitements 
v.'hich clouded the minds of many of the combatants in this 
period pass away, Garfield's courage and broad-minded states- 
manship havebecomc more and more the subject of admiration 



144 THE LIFE OF GEN". JAMES A. uARFIELD. 

on the part of those who agreed with him at the time, of those 
within his own party who then differed from him, and even of 
many of those whose arguments he was obliged to repel. He 
showed himself more than a mere party leader. He rose to the 
full proportions of an American statesman, whose nature, con- 
victions, and training had rendered it impossible that he should 
either surrender or cease to defend any of that beautiful and 
symmetrically proportioned edifice of civil liberty which was 
the product of the wusdom, the experience, and the patriotism 
of the fathers. 

Although it would be supposed that the duties imposed upon 
him as leader of the Republican side of the House at the extra 
session in oj^posing the cocrcionist and revolutionary schemes 
of the Democrats w^ould have been sufficient to engage all his 
energies, it is notable that he was found prepared for every 
emergency of debate on other issues of importance as they arose 
for the consideration of the House. For instance, on the 15th 
of April he furnished a startling array of facts as to the num- 
ber of Union soldiers who had risked everything for the cause 
in the seceding States. Five days before that he had handled 
with his usual vigor the question of resumption and the cur- 
rency, resisting an insidious attempt to increase the volume of 
the subsidiary paper currency. On the 17th of May he made a 
brief speech on the House bill to authorize the unlimited coin- 
age of silver, and to give the profits thereof to the owners of 
bullion, which was a remarkable instrnce of condensation, and 
was w^ell calculated to appeal to the good sense of those advo- 
cates of silver who have some consideration for the immutable 
laws of trade and currency, and warned the House that the bill 
under consideration reached further and touched more vital 
interests than was generally appreciated. He called attention 
to the fact that " within recent months the leading thinkers of 
the civilized world had become alarmed at the attitude of the 
two precious metals in relation to each other," and that " many 
leading thinkers were becoming clearly of the opinion that by 
some wise, judicious arrangement both the precious metals 



THE LIFE OF GE:N'. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 145 

must be kept in service for the currency of the world. " And he 
called the attention of the House to the fact that in England 
there had been recently a decided accession to the side of those 
who believed that she ought to abandon the single gold stand- 
ard and " harness both silver and gold to the monetary car of 
the world." " And yet," added he, " outside of this Capitol, 
I do not this day know of a single great and recognized advo- 
cate of bimetallic money who regards it prudent or safe for 
any nation largely to increase the coinage standard of silver 
coin at the present time beyond the limits fixed by existing 
laws. France and the States of the Latin Union, that have 
long believed in bimetallism, maintained it against all comers, 
and have done all in their power to advocate it throughout the 
world, dare not coin a single silver coin, and have not done so 
since 1874. The most strenuous advocates of bimetallism in 
those countries say it would be ruinous to bimetallism for 
France or the Latin Union to coin any more silver at present. 
The remaining stock of German silver now for sale, amounting 
to from forty to seventy-five millions of dollars, is a standing 
menace to the exchange and silver coinage of Europe. One 
month ago the leading financial journal of London proposed 
that the Bank of England buy one half of the German surplus 
and hold it five years on condition that the German Govern- 
ment shall hold the other half off the market. The time is 
ripe for some wise and prudent arrangement among the nations 
to save silver from a disastrous break-down. ' ' 
And he continued : 

" Yet we, who during the past two years have coined far 
more silver dollars than we ever before coined since the founda- 
tion of the Government — ten times as many as we coined during 
half a century of our national life — are to-day ignoring and 
defying the enlightened, universal opinion of bimetallists, and 
saying that the XJnitcd States, single-handed and alone, can 
enter the field and settle the mighty issue alone. We are justi- 
fying the old proverb that ' Fools rush in where angels fear to 
tread. ' 

" It is sheer madness, Mr. Speaker. I once saw a dog on a 



146 THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

great stack of hay that had been floated out into the wild, over- 
flowed stream of a river, with its stack-pen and foundation still 
holding together, but ready to be wrecked. For a little while 
the animal apjjeared to be perfectly happy. His hay-stack was 
there and the pen around it, and he seemed to think the world 
bright, and his happiness secure, while the sunshine fell softly 
on his head and his hay. But by and by he began to discover 
that the house and the barn and their surroundings were not 
all there as they were when he went to sleep the night before ; 
and he began to see that he could not command all the prospect 
and peacefully dominate the scene as he had done before. So 
with this House. We assume to manage this mighty question 
which has been launched on the wild current that sweeps over 
the whole world, and we bark from our legislative hay-stacks, 
as though we commanded the whole world. [Applause.] In 
the name of common-sense and sanity, let us take some account 
of the flood ; let us understand that a deluge means something, 
and try, if we can, to get our bearings before we undertake to 
settle the affairs of all mankind by a vote of this House. 

" To-day we are coining one third of all the silver that is 
being coined in the round world. China is coining another 
third ; and all other nations are using the remaining one third 
for subsidiary coin. And if we want to take rank with China 
and part company w^ith all of the civilized nations of the "West- 
ern world, let us pass this bill, and then ' bay the moon ' as 
we float down the whirling channel to take our place among 
the silver monometal lists of Asia. 

" What this country needs above all other things, is that this 
Congress shall pass the appropriation bills, adjourn, and go 
home [applause on the Republican side], and let the forces of 
business and good order and brotherhood, working in their 
natural and orderly way, bring us into light and stability and 
peace. And we want time to adjust this great international 
question. Now, while I am speaking, the Administration is 
opening negotiations with all the Western nations, to see if 
there cannot be some international arrangement whereby this 
question of bimetallism may be wisely settled. We tried it by 
international monetary conference. It was a preliminary recon- 
naissance, and — " 

[Here the hammer fell.] 

On the 21st of June General Garfield made, a speech on the 
Mississippi River as an object of national care, which showed 
that while he was resolutely opposed to wasting the national 



THE LIFE OF GEJ,'. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 147 

treasure in improving mountain-trout brooks for purposes of 
nav" Jtio" anito ri.^r and harbor bills that consisted largely 
of appropriations for harbors which had no commerce and 
rLrs whlh were vexed by no keels, he was perfectly w.lhng 
to Jo tL full length of a wise liberality in the improvement of 

g3 national wa^r-ways, especially of the river wh.ch drams 

thiTtv states of the Union. 

''This^eech attracted much attention and called out -cU 

admiration at the time, and deserves to form a part of anj 

record of Garfield's statesmanship. Said he : 

" Mb Speaker : I should oppose this bill, very decidedly, if 

H co'^miU lus at this time to a„y pUn o^^^^^f --«;[= 

its P'^^^^f/^ ,<2"™'euTate offici^^^ 'ntormltion touching the 

His-^ss."' ;»=■;* =- 

cess I meal ?he jetty system at the mouth of that river I 
s.^v^'aDmrently/ because it is possible that m the long run it 
r^ay nltlro.J^ success ; but at the present moment ^t appears 
^ be a ireat and striking success in the management of the 
Luths ff that river. If it prove to be permanently so all our 

tn hP reconsidered in view of the new hght that the jetiy 
SrhlTge^lX^^-, fnd ?: g|T= 

wm"efuU ^giving us information "P0° ^IM-tu^^be 1" 
which we are called upon to legislate What *all be ao°e 
with this knowledge when it comes, will be for our successors 
to sav We do not commit ourselves or them to any scheme at 
this t'me But for myself, I believe that one of the grandest 



148 THE LIFE OF GEi^. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

of our material national interests — one that is national iu the 
largest material sense of that word — is the Mississippi River and 
its navio-able tributaries. It is the most gigantic single natural 
feature of our continent, far transcending the glory of the 
ancient Nile or of any other river on the earth. The states- 
manship of America must grapple the problem of this mighty 
stream. It is too vast for any State to handle ; too much for 
any authority less tlian tliat of the nation itself to manage. 
And I believe the time will come when the liberal-minded 
statesmanship of this country will devise a wise and compre- 
hensive system, that will harness tlie powers of this great river 
to the material interests of America, so that not only all the 
people who live on its banks and the banks of its confluents, 
l3ut all the citizens of the Republic, whether dwellers in the 
central valley or on the slope of either ocean, will recognize the 
importance of preserving and perfecting this great natural and 
material bond of national union between the North and the 
South — a bond to be so strengthened by commerce and inter- 
course that it can never be severed. [Applause.] 

" One of our early Presidents went so far as even to exceed 
his early preconceived opinions of the constitutionnl power of 
the Executive, in order to buy from France a mighty empire to 
be added to the Union ; and he did it for this reason chiefly, 
that the young Republic could not permanently endure as a 
nation without owning and controlling the mouths of the 
Mississippi. Nearly the whole continent west of that river was 
bought, to make the Union perpetual by bringing every foot of 
the shore of the Mississippi under our flag. If I did not think 
it almost unworthy of so great a theme, I would say that if 
there had been no patriotic impulse higher than any considera- 
tion of material welfare which moved twenty millions of Ameri- 
cans to resist the attempt to break the Union in pieces, and im- 
pelled them to hold it together by all the cost of blood and 
treasure that our late war required, if there had been no higher 
national sentiment inspiring them, the immense material stake 
which the people of the great North and West and centre of 
this country had in the free use of that river from its sources to 
its mouth, that their commerce might go southward to the sea 
under the one flag, unvexed by conflicting nationalities, this 
material stake alone would have made all the people of the 
upper valley of the Mississippi resist to the last the dismember- 
ment of the Union. 

"■ This great river, which our fathers made such sacrifices to 
acquire, and which the present generation made so much cost- 



THE LIFE OF GEX. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 149 

lier sacrifices to recleem from disunion and to hold within the 
grasp of the nation, we have held, not in obedience to mere 
sentiment alone, not with a view of keeping it as a vast and 
worthless waste of water, but to utilize it by making it the ser- 
vant of all the people of this country. How shallwe utilize it, 
unless at some time, and in some wise way, we bridle it by the 
skill of man and make it subservient to the interests of com- 
merce ? 

''Now, Mr. Speaker and gentlemen of the House, there is 
another reason why I am in favor of this measure. I rejoice in 
any occasion which enables Representatives from the North 
and from the South to unite in an unpartisan effort to promote 
a great national interest. [Applause.] Such an occasion is 
good for us both. And when we can do it without the sacrifice 
of our convictions, and can benefit millions of our fellow- 
citizens, and thereby strengthen the bonds of the Union, we 
ought to do it with rejoicing ; for, in so doing, we shall inspire 
our people with larger and more generous views, and help to 
confirm for them and for our posterity to our latest generations, 
the indissoluble Union and the permanent grandeur of this 
Republic. I shall vote for tills bill. " [Applause on both sides 
of the House.] 

On the 27th of June he made a very terse and condensed ar- 
gument on the various phases of the revived doctrine of State 
Sovereignty, showing from the recent speeches of Democratic 
members that Calhounism still had prominent defenders and ex- 
ponents among the leaders of that party in both branches of 
Congress. The declarations made by these men he summarized 
in this manner : 

" Let me summarize them : First, there are no national elec- 
tions ; second, the United States has no voters ; third, the 
States have the exclusive right to control all elections of mem- 
bers of Congress ; fourth, the Senators and Representatives in 
Congress are State officers, or, as they have been called during 
the present session, ' ambassadors ' or ' agents ' of the State ; fifth, 
the United States has no authority to keep the peace anywhere 
within a State, and, in fact, has no peace to keep ; sixth, the 
United States is not a nation endowed with sovereign power, but 
is a confederacy of States ; seventh, the States are sovereignties 
possessing inherent supreme powers ; they are older than the 



150 THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

Union, and as independent sovereignties the State Governments 
created the Union and determined and limited the powers of the 
General Government. 

" These declarations embody the sum total of the constitu- 
tional doctrines which the Democracy has avowed during this 
extra session of Congress. They form a body of doctrines 
which I do not hesitate to say are more extreme than were ever 
before held in this subject, except perhaps at the very crisis of 
secession and rebellion." 

He then enumerated the attempts which had been made to 
embody these abstract and false theories of our Government in 
practice ; and met them with these broad counter-propositions, 
which are important in any estimate of Garfield's constitutional 
views : 

" I afRrm : First, that the Constitution of the United States 
was not created by the Government of the States, but was or- 
dained and established by the only sovereign in this country— 
the common superior of both the States and the nation — the 
people themselves ; second, that the United States is a nation, 
having a government whose powers, as defined and limited by 
the Constitution, operate upon all the States in their corporate 
capacity and upon all the people ; third, that by its legislative, 
executive, and judicial authority, the nation is armed with ade- 
quate power to enforce all the provisions of the Constitution 
against all opposition of individuals or of States, at all times and 
all places witliin the Union." 

These propositions he defended by a summary of the history 
of the sovereignty and government in this country as comprised 
in four shan>lv defined enochs. to wit : 



in four sharply defined epochs, to wit 



'' First : Prior to the 4th of July, 1776, sovereignty, so far 
as it can be affirmed of this country, was lodgd in the Crown cf 
Great Britain. Every member of every colony (the colonists 
were not citizens but subjects) drew his legal rights from the 
Crown of Great Britain. ' Every acre of land in this country 
was then held mediately or immediately by grants from that 
Crown,' and ' all the civil authority then existing or exercised 
here, flowed from the head of the British Empire. ' 

" Second: On the 4th day of July, 1776, the people of these 



THE LIFE OF GEK. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 151 

colonies, asserting their natural inherent right as sovereigns, 
withdrew the sovereignty from the Crown of Great Britain and 
reserved it to themselves. In so far as they delegated this na- 
tional authority at all, they delegated it to the Continental 
Congress assembled at Philadelphia. That Congress, by gen- 
eral consent, became the supreme government of this country — 
executive, judicial, and legislative in one. During the whole 
of its existence it wielded the sujjreme power of the new na- 
tion. 

" Third : On the 1st day of March, 1781, the same sovereign 
power, the people, withdrew the authority from the Continental 
Congress and lodged it, so far as they lodged it at all, with the 
Confederation, which, though a league of States, was declared, 
to be a perpetual union. 

" Fourth : When at last our fathers found the Confederation 
too weak and inefficient for the purposes of a great nation, they 
abolished it and lodged the national authority, enlarged and 
strengthened by new powers, in the Constitution of the United 
States, where, in spite of all assaults, it still remains. All these 
great acts were done by the only sovereign in this Republic, 
the people themselves." 

After illustrating the truth of his propositions, by quotations 
from Elliot's "Debates" and the "Decisions of the Supreme 
Court of the United States," he said : 

" I am unwilling to believe that any considerable number of 
Americans will ever again push that doctrine to the same ex- 
treme ; and yet in these summer months of 1879, in the Congress 
of the reunited nation, we find the majority drifting fast and 
far in the wrong direction, by reasserting much of that doctrine 
which the war ought to have settled forever. And what is 
more lamentable, such declarations as those which I read at the 
outset are finding their echoes in many portions of the country 
which was lately the theatre of war. No one can read the pro- 
ceedings at certain recent celebrations, without observing the 
growing determination to assert that the men who fought 
against the Union were not engaged in treasonable conspiracy 
against the nation, but that they did right to fight for their 
States, and that, in the long run, the lost cause will be victo- 
rious. These indications are filling the people with anxiety and 
indignation ; and they are beginning to inquire whether the 
war has really settled these ^eat questions. 



152 THE LIFE OF GEK. JAMES A. GARFIEID. 

" I remind ^rentlemen on the other side that "we have not our- 
selves revived these issues. We had lioped they were settled 
beyond recall, and that peace and friendship might be fully 
restored to our people. 

" But the truth requires me to say that there is one indispen- 
sable ground of agreement on which alone we can stand to- 
gether, and it is this : The war for the Union was right, ever- 
lastingly right [applause] ; and the war against the Union was 
wTong, forever wrong. However honest and sincere individ- 
uals may have been, the secession was none the less rebellion 
and treason. We defend the States in the exercise of their 
many and important rights, and we defend with equal zeal the 
rights of the United States. The rights and authority of both 
were received from the people— the only source of inherent 
power. 

" We insist not only that this is a nation, but that the power 
of the Government, within its own prescribed sphere, operates 
directly upon the States and upon all the people. We insist 
that our laws shall be construed by our own courts and enforced 
by our Executive. Any theory which is inconsistent with this 
doctrine we will resist to the end." 

(Garfield to B. A. Hinsdale.) 

Washington, May 20, 1879. 

I have read your letter carefully. It is all interesting, and some of your re- 
flections and suggestions are very valuable. I will notice yoar points in the 
order you state them. 

First.— You think my position in l he first ppccch was greatly modified, if 
not abandoned, ia the second, because, first, from the speech of March ;29th, the 
ordinary reader would g.-t the idea that revolution comes in on the rider, and 
not in insisting upon the rider when it could rot command a two thirds vote ; 
second, that the latter point is not mentioned at all in my first speech, and ho in- 
timation is made that the rider is ever legitimate. It is no doubt true that the 
reader of my first speech who had not paid special attention to the transactions 
of Congress during the preceding month might fail to understand what was plain 
to my liearers, who had listened to the debate, in which the Democrats had re- 
peatedly stated that their reason for putting their independent legislation upon 
the appropriation bill as a rider was because they were certain it would be vetoed 
if passed as an independent measure, and their only hope of success was to pass 
no appropriation bills without the riders. 

Several of these declarations are quoted in the President's veto of the Army 
Appropriation Bill. But I don't think that the ordinary reader can find anything 
in my first f-pcech which implies that it is revolutionary to put a rider on an ap- 
propriation bill. 

It is singular that no member of Congress who replied to me attempted to 
show by any quolation from my speech that I had said so. 



THE LIFE. OF GEN". JAMES A. GARFIELD. 153 

On the contrary, I think the ordinary reader will understand that I was dis- 
cussing the refusal to vote supplies if the ridered bill should be vetoed. 

Let me call your attention to the fact that, after developina;, on pages 6, 7 and 
8 of the first speech, the doctrine of the voluntary powers of the government, 
and that the free consent of the House, the Senate, and the Pret^ident, or two 
thirds of the House and Senate against the President's consent is the basis of all 
our laws, I say at the close of page 8 : " The programme announced two weeks 
ago was that if the Senate refnsed to consent to the demands of the House the 
government should stop. And the proposition was then, and the programme 
is now, that, although there is not a Senate to be coerced, there isptilla third 
independent branch in the legislative power of the government who?c consent 
is to be coerced at the peril of the destruction of this povernmcnt. That is, ii 
the President, in the discharge of his duty, shall exercise his i)l;iin constitutional 
right to refuse his ccmscnt to this proposed legislation, Congress will so use 
its voluntary powers as to destroy the government.'" 

This is the proposition which we confront and we denounce as revolutionary. 
That is, the Democratic party in Congress, knowing it had not a two thirds ma- 
jority, declared that if thi; President refused his signature to their independent 
legislation they would not vote supplies and would let the government perish of 
inanition. My replies to the questions of Mr. Stevens, page 11, and Mr. Davis, 
page 14, are to the same effect, from the beginning to the end of the speech. I 
was discussing their proposition, that if ihey could not pass their measures of 
independent legislation in spite of the President's veto— and they knew they 
could not— they would refuse to vote supplies. As Mr. Beck said : "Whether 
that course is right or wrong, it will be adhered to, no matter what happens to 
the appropriation bills." 

My theme was the proposed coercion of the President and the threat of stop- 
ping the government. 

I think it appears from the foregoing that I did not call riders revolutionary. 
I said nothing about the legitimacy of riders, because that was not my theme. 

Seconu.— You think,, /irs^, that I used the word revolution in a loose stump- 
speech sense, and not in the more serious sense in which statesmen should vm- 
■ploy it ; second, and you see nothing in the state of the public mind outside of 
Congress to indicate any general concurrence in my opinion that revolution was 
threatened. I know the word is sometimes loosely used in reference to changes 
of a quiet sort. We say, for example, there has been a revolution in the com- 
mon-school system. I do not think I am open to the charge of using it either in 
the stump-speech or in the milder sense just referred to. Certainly we had a 
revolution in 1861; but before we came to blows the revolution was prepared by 
the attempt of the South to put iu force the doctrine that a State was sovereign 
and had a right to secede from the Union. To put that doctrine in practice was 
to destroy the government, and dissolution was revolution. 

Now, the Democratic programme, as announced by Thurman, Beck, and the 
rest, is that, whatever may be the consequence, they will not vote supplies un- 
less certain laws are repealed; and, not having the constitutional power to repeal 
those laws, they have thus far refused to vote supplies. Continued persistence 
in that refusal destroys the government. I denounce their policy and purpose 



154 THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

as threatened revolution. If that which inevitably destroys the government be 
not revolution, in the largest and most dangerous sense of that word, I am wholly 
mistaken. 

You say you do not see signs of revolution in the country : nor do I. I saw 
it only in Congress. The title of my speech was " Revolution in Congress," and 
I resisted it there in order that it might not spread and become revolution 
throughout the whole Union. I do not now believe it will ripen into completed 
revolution, because the purposes of the Democracy having been disclosed, pub- 
lic opinion will break them down. I think my speech Las done something to- 
ward breaking them down by disclosing their purposes. The responses of the 
country before I made my second speech greatly relieved my apprehensions, and 
I felt less for the result April 4th than I did March 29th, though the Democracy 
had not abandoned their scheme, nor have they done so yet. 

Third.— Your analysis of the elements that make up the spirit of ^he Re- 
publican party is certainly just in the main. It would not be possible for any 
party to be the chief actor in the events of the past twenty-five years without 
being influenced by the spirit of the events themselves. Our recent history bas 
developed a war-horse type of Republican which I agree with you in despising 
as a permanent element: but I do not agree with you that the present agitation 
is an outcome on the part of Republicans to get up a new cry. We do not get 
up the cry, we do not bring in this new issue. My analysis of the situation is 
this : Two Democratic leaders, Tilden and Thurman, are engaged in a desperate 
struggle for the next Presidency. Tilden hopes to be elected on the reminis- 
cences of 1876. The Potter Committee was appointed to infuse the belief that 
Tilden had been counted out by fraud. Tilden had been gaining ground as a 
candidate, and if Thurman merely joined in this cry of fraud he carried coals to 
Tilden's cellar and did not help himself. He therefore raised a new issue to rally 
the party around him. His cry was: •' No military interference with elections !" 
"Down with the bayonet at the polls !" "Down with national intorferenre 
with elections.'" The only way that he and his associates could elevate this issue 
into prominence was by threatening to stop the government if his aggravations 
are not redressed. Not to have resisted this scheme would have been criminal 
on our part. It is true that in resisting it the war-horse type of Republican has 
found new emi)Ioyment, and many of the undesirable elements of our party are 
delighted that this issue has been raised. This could not be otherwise ; but it is 
not just to eay that Republicans have raised the issue to feed their taste for 
gore. 

I note with great interest what you say about the recent history of my 
mind and the effect of stump-speaking upon my modes of thinking. I have no 
doubtthat it induces a looseness and superficiality of thought, and an extrava- 
gance of expression; but, on the other hand, it has some compensations. A 
man addressing a great and mixed audience composed of friends and enemies is 
certainly impelled to be more careful in his statements of facts than one whr 
has his audience all to himself. He is much less liable to become epigrammati- 
cal and self-confidentin his own views than those who have a friendly audience, 
where nobody opposes or puts questions. I should be grieved indeed if I felt 
that political speaking was weakening my lore of study and reflection in other 



THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 155 

directions. I thank you for the suggestions, and shaU keep watch of myself all 
the more in consequence of them. But it occurs to me I have made more 
speeches of the kind you approve within the last six months than of the kmd 
vou disapprove. For example, the Henry speech, the speech on the Relation of 
the Government to Science, the Sugar Tariff speech, the speech on Mr. 
Schleicher, the Chicago speech, and the two articles in the North American Re- 
view. 

{Oarfldd to B. A. Hinsdale.) 

Washington, July 7, 1879. 

The session haa been a most uncomfortable one ; but, on the whole, it has 
been valuable in the new class of topics it has brought into discussion The 
Democrats completely abandoned the main ground which they at first took, and 
the most sensible among them do not hesitate to admit privately that it was 
wholly untenable. Instead of withholding $45,000,000 of appropriations to com- 
pel the redress of grievances, they withheld only $W)0,000, and they did not carry 
as many points of legislation as were tendered them at the close of the last Con- 
gress, -nie course of justice can only be kept by the marshals f vancing the 
necessary money and running the risk of Congress paymg them hereafter , but 
their powers and official authority are not impaired. ... 

Partywise, the extra session has united the Republicans more than anything 
since 1868, and it bids fair to give us 1880. 



CHAPTER XTII. 

THE LOUISIANA COUNT AND OTUER MATTERS. 

Some attempt has been made to asperse Garfield on account 
of his going down to New Orleans as one of the " visiting states- 
men," after the Presidential election of 1876. The attempt is 
utterly futile, but it may be well to refer to the actual facts 
with regard to this visit. At the request of President Grant he 
went to New Orleans, and when Mr. Potter afterward came 
there with his investigating committee, after full inquiry he 
found no fault whatever with Garfield's conduct in his report. 
Nobody before the committee charged that he did or said any 
unjust or unfair thing. What he did, and all he did, was to 
examine very carefully the testimony in relation to the election 
in one parish, West Feliciana, and to write out a careful, brief, 
and judicial statement of the oflicial testimony as to the con- 
duct of the election there, and bring out his own conclusions, 
which formed a part of the general report ; but his report on 
West Feliciana was written separately. In it he analyzed the 
Ku-Klux Rifle Club movement in that parish which broke up 
the election, and confined himself to that. He is perfectly will- 
ing to stand on everything he did there as being straight and 
true and fair. 

When the "visiting statesmen" returned, and the question 
of counting the electoral votes came up, an effort was finally 
made to constitute the Electoral Commission, on the assump- 
tion that the Vice-President had not the right to count the vote, 
but that Congress had the exclusive right to count it. He made 
a speech on this subject on the 28th of January, 1877, in which 
he took the ground that the Vice-President had the right under 
the Constitution to count the vote ; that Congress would be 
committing a usurpation if it undertook to count it ; that Con- 



THE LIFE OF GEJn". JAMES A. GARFIELD. 157 

gress was only present as a witness of a great, solemn ceremony, 
and not as an actor, and he voted against the bill establishing 
the Electoral Commission. He was opposed to it on principle. 
The bill itself was due largely to suggestions from the Demo- 
cratic members— not of a majority, but of a few influential men. 
It was also supported by prominent Republicans. The Demo- 
crats joined heartily in sustaining it, and defended it as from 
high and patriotic principles. It afterward appeared that they 
believed that Judge Davis of the Supreme Court, who had be- 
come almost if not quite a Democrat, would hold the casting 
vote and count in Mr. Tilden. Mr. Henry B. Payne, of Ohio, 
afterward admitted, in a speech in Cleveland, that he and his 
Democratic colleagues would not have passed the Electoral bill 
had they not supposed that Judge Davis would be a member of 
tlie committee. Garfield had voted against the Electoral bill, 
vind spoken against it, yet when it was, by common consent of 
^;orae of the ablest and most patriotic members of both Houses 
of Congress, decided that the Electoral Commission should be 
constituted, and that the Ilepublicans should have two members 
of the Commission from the House and the Democrats three, 
when the Republicans met they first and unanimously selected 
Garfield as the man to represent them, and then chose Mr. George 
F. Hoar, now Senator, and lately the chairman of the Chicago 
Convention. Garfield accepted the appointment to serve, but 
regarded it as he would service on a committee. He did not 
believe that the Electoral Commission was a constitutional 
body, but merely a select committee appointed by Congress to 
make a report, which was subject to rejection by both Houses 
of Congress ; and it is singular that the Democrats who sus- 
tained Mr. John Bigclow's able argument in favor of the abso- 
lute power of Congress to count the votes have forgotten, or 
failed to see, that it is entirely immaterial whether or not the 
Electoral Commission was either a constitutional body or a just 
and conscientious committee. It was the action of Congress 
on the report of the Electoral Commission which made the 
count effectual and constitutional, and on any theory whatever 



158 THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

tliis action gave to Mr, Hayes a title as valid as has been pos- 
sessed by any President. 

On the inauguration of Hayes to the Presidency the Repub- 
lican party was considerably divided and demoralized. It was 
reunited and vindicated by the report of the Potter Committee, 
which, having set out to authenticate Democratic scandals, 
ended by the discovery of scandals of a much more serious na- 
ture affecting their own candidate. At that period Garfield 
held the difficult position of a leader who was trying to protect 
his party from divisions, which he only succeeded in doing by 
keeping the minority for six months from having a caucus, ex- 
cept to meet and choose officers or to do some unimportant and 
unexciting business. There was no caucus in this period held 
for the purpose of declaring party principles or policies. 

In this connection it is well to state, as showing the recogni- 
tion of Garfield's leadership by his party associates in the House, 
that after Mr. Blaine went to the Senate Garfield was unani- 
mously voted for as their candidate for Speaker. He was thus 
sustained three successive times— once after Kerr died, during 
Us term as Speaker, and when Randall was elected for the short 
term; then when Randall was first elected, and again when he 
was re-elected Speaker. 

There was a strong tendency in 1877, on the part of some of 
the Republican leaders in both Houses, to assail President 
Hayes as a traitor who was going to Johnsonize the party. At 
first the defenders of the Administration were comparatively 
few ; but there was perfect agreerhent between them that they 
would prevent any serious division in the party, so far as possi- 
ble, and there was no party caucus of the Republican members of 
the House on any important question until Mr. Potter made his 
motion for an investigation of the title of President Hayes. 
That had the effect to bring all the Republican members to- 
gether. A caucus was held which denounced the Potter Inves- 
tigation as revolutionary, and worked together with perfect 
harmony ; and on this nucleus of support to one of the cleanest, 
purest, and ablest administrations of the Government in all its 



THE LIFE OF GEK. JAME3 A. GARFIELD. 159 

history, was gradually dcTeloped a Ecpublican support of the 
admiSstratio. which has been all the -<>- -^*'^ *'l^' '' ^,; 
come from a quiet and steadily growing recognition by Repub 
Hcans of the ability, fidelity to duty, and f »f "^''°*'Pj;* 
which the President and his constitutional advisers have f«l 
filled their duties and met their responsibilities Garfield s 
work as a pacificator of the party was very effective Heis a 
natural conciliator, having no selfish or personal ends m view 
absorbed entirely in strengthening his party, and le'^ding .t. 
through honorable paths, to lasting successes. His ready 

aband'onment of minor causes of ^'A?-"-' '"^ /^^^ i"; 
his inspiring devotion to the true interests of the party have 
made Mm itl most helpful leader, the one who has aroused th 
fewest antagonisms, and who has won for his party its most 
honorable triumphs. 

{Garfild to B. A. Hinsdale.) 

Washington, November 11, 1876. 
Tastevenin.. the President telegraphed me from Philadelphia, requesting 
me ^go to T; Orleans and remain nntil the vote is counted, actmg as a .. - 
F?!.; .r,nt T vva8 a eood deal embarrassed by the request for several 

but feel it to be a duty from which I cannot shrink. 

{Garfield to the Eon. C. C. mil, Boston, Mass.) 

New Orleans, La., November 18, 1876. 

The Dresent political situation is a very grave one. and some of Its aspects 
Tbe present poimoa citizens to discourage 



ICO THE LIFE OF GEI^-. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

stant. Oiir chief conceni should now be to ascertain what the choice was, and 
then to insist that the choice shall be our law. 

It is most unfortunate that the result should turn upon the vote of a State 
80 peculiarly and delicately situated as Louisiana. The whole stress and strain 
of public passion thus presses upon the weakest and worst place. The official 
report of the State Board of Canvassers cannot be completed in less than ten 
days. They begin their work to-day, and will invite a delegation of both politi- 
cal parties to join as spectators. I shall try to get excused from being on the 
delegation if possible, for I want to go home. But it now appears probable I 
shall be -compelled to remain until the count is complete. 

********** **** 

T started for this place on the urgent request of the President, I have been 
po depressed in spirit by the loss of our precious little boy that I have hardly 
had the heart to write at all. 

{Garfldd toB. A. Hinsdale.) 

Washington, January 4, 1877. 

When T reflect that it is now more than sixteen years since I have been for 
a moment free from the responsibilities of public life, I seem to have become 
the slave of others, and hardly at all free to follow the plans of personal culture 
of which I once dreamed and hoped ; and bo I join you in much dissatisfaction 
with ray past, and yet I suppose we should feel the same in any course of life 
we might have pursued. 

I appreciate what you say of the political situation. I have no doubt that 
whatever man is inaugurated President will go in withacloud upon his title, in 
the estimation ot many men, but the behavior of a great nation in the adminis- 
tration of its laws at a critical moment is more important than the fate of any 
one man or party. We have reached the place where the road is marked by no 
footprint, and we must make a direct line to be fit to follow after we are dead. 
It is only at such times that the domain of law is enlarged and the safeguard of 
liberty is increased. I confess to you that I do not feel adequate to the task ; but 
I shall do my best to point out a worthy way to the light and the right. 

{Garfield to B. A. Hinsdale.) 

Washington, March 10, 187^, 
ft is due to Hayes that we stand by him and give his policy a fair trial. I 
understand he wants me to stay in the House. I shall' see him this evening and 
if he is decided in his wishes on that point, I shall probably decline to be a can- 
didate for the Senate. On many accounts I would like to take that place, but it 
seems to fall to my lot to make the sacrifice. It is probable, though not certain, 
that I could be elected if I ran. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

OCCASIONAL SPEECHES. 



It is wonderful, considering all of his other activities and 
.vith his multifarious studies, that Garfield has found the time 
to deliver so many addresses of a non-political character. It s 
impossible to consider even a small proportion of these effoits 
all of which are interesting, many of which are important, and 
some of which deserve to be ranked among the hrst class of 
productions of their sort. 

His oration on the first great occasion of decoratmgthe graves 
of Union soldiers is a type of one class of purely patriotic efforts 
It was delivered at Arlington Heights, to a most distinguished 
audience, consisting of the President, his Cabinet, a large num- 
ber of members of Congress, and eminent citizens from all parts 
of the country, and amid surroundings peculiarly calculated to 
inspire any speaker as susceptible and impressible as Garfield. 
It was the first considerable memorial service of the sort ob- 
served anywhere in the Union, occurring on the 30th of May 
1868 At the very opening, he admitted that he was oppressed 
with a sense of the impropriety of uttering words on such an 
occasion. Said he : 

- If silence is ever golden, it must be here, beside the graves 

of fifteen thousand m?n, whose lives were more significant than 

speech and whose death was a poem the music of which c^^^^ 

uever be sung. With words, we make P^o^^^^^v^i f -fi! .^Iv 

pmfse virtue." Promises may not be kept ; plighted faith may 

be broken ; and vaunted virtue may be only the cunnmg mask of 

.' vi'ce Wedonot know one promise these' men made, one pledge 

llhev srave one word they spoke ; but we do know they sum- 

^ med uTand perfected, by one supreme act the highes virtues 

^f men and citizens. For love of country they accepted death , 



162 THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

and thus resolved all doubts, and made immortal their patriot- 
ism and their virtue. 

" For the noblest man that lives there still remains a conflict. 
He must still withstand the assaults of time and fortune ; must 
still be assailed with temptations before -which lofty natures 
have fallen. But with these^ the conflict ended, the victory was 
won, when death stamped on them the great seal of heroic 
character, and closed a record which years can never blot." 

One oratorical passage in this beautiful tribute to the gallant 
dead will be appreciated by all those who have beheld the im- 
pressive scene which is spread out in front of the visitor to Ar- 
lington Heights. Said he : 

' ' The view from this spot bears some resemblance to that which 
greets the eye at Rome. In sight of the Capitoline Hill, up 
and across the Tiber, and overlooking the city, is a hill, not 
rugged or lofty, but known as the Vatican Mount. At the be- 
ginning of the Christian Era, an imperial circus stood on its 
summit. There, gladiator slaves died for the sport of Rome, 
and wild beasts fought with wilder men. In that arena, a Gal- 
ilean fisherman gave up his life a sacrifice for his faith. No 
human life was ever so nobly avenged. On that spot was 
reared the proudest Christian temple ever built by human 
hands. For its adornment the rich offerings of every clime and 
kingdom had been contributed. And now, after eighteen cen- 
turies, the hearts of two hundred million people turn toward it 
with reverence when they worship God. As the traveller de- 
scends the Apennines, he see^ the dome of St. Peter's rising above 
the desolate Campagna and the dead city, long before the Seven 
Hills and ruined palaces appear to his view. The fame of the 
dead fisherman has outlived the glory of the Eternal City. A 
noble life, crowned with heroic death, rises above and outlives 
the pride and pomp and glory of the mightiest empire of the 
earth.'" 

Probably the memorial effort that gave him the greatest de- 
gree of thought and labor, and even apprehension, was the 
eulogy on General Gftorge H. Thomas, which he delivered to 
his comrades of the Army of the Cumberland, at Cleveland, on 
the 25th of November, 1870. No man had a deeper apprecia- 
tion of the massive and majestic character of Thomas than Gar- 



THE LIFE OF GEi^". JAMES A. GARFIELD. 103 

field, for he had been associated with Thomas in the closest 
ofiicial and personal relations, and between them there had 
sprung up a friendship of extraordinary strength. It is gen- 
erally conceded that this eulogy upon Thomas is by far the 
ablest, the justest, and the most eloquent tribute ever paid by 
an orator to the great Virginia soldier. As a review of Thom- 
as's personal and military career, as a defense against malignant 
accusations from treasonable sources, and as a rhetorical picture 
of a character of singular individuality and grandeur, it is with- 
out blemish, and comes up to the highest standard. His por- 
trait of Thomas will go down to history as a masterly descrip- 
tion of a magnificent specimen of manhood. Said he : 

',' I know that each of you here present sees him in memory at 
this moment, as we often saw him in life ; erect and strong, like a 
tower of solid masonry ; his broad, square shoulders and massive 
head ; hisabimdant hair and full beard of light brown, sprinkled 
with silver ; his broad forehead, full face, and features that 
would appear colossal but for their perfect harmony of propor- 
tion ; his clear complexion, with just enough color to assure 
you of robust health and a well-regulated life ; his face lighted 
up by an eye which was cold gray to his enemies, but warm, 
deep blue to his friends ; not a man of iron, but of live oak. 
His attitude, form, and features all assured you of inflexible 
firmness, of inexpugnable strength, while his welcoming smile 
set every feature ag-low with a kindness that won your manliest 
affection. If thus in memory you see his form and features, 
even more vividly do you remember the qualities of his mind 
and heart. His body was the fitting type of his intellect and 
character ; and you saw both his intellect and character tried 
again and again in the fiery furnace of war, and by other tests 
not less searching. Thus, comrades, you see him ; and your 
memories supply a thousand details which complete and adorn 
the picture. I beg you, therefore, to supply the deficiency of 
my work from these living phototypes in your own hearts." 

His description of the secret of Thomas's success is to so large 
a degree applicable to his own career that it has an autobiogra- 
phical interest. Said he : 

*' Thomas's life is a notable illustration of the virtue and 



104 THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GAKFIELD. 

power of hard woik ; aud in the last analysis the power to do 
liard work is only another name for talent. Professor Church, 
one of his instructors at West Point, says of his student life, 
that ' he never allowed anything to escape a thorough examina- 
tion, and left nothing behind that he did not fully comprehend.' 
And so it was in the army. To him a battle was neither an 
earthquake, nor a volcano, nor a chaos of brave men and frantic 
horses, involved in vast explosions of gunpowder. It was 
rather a caim rational concentration of force against force. It 
was a question of lines and positions ; of weight and of metal, 
and strength of battalions. He knew that the elements and 
forces which bring victory are not created on the battle-field, 
but must be patiently elaborated in the quiet of the camp, by 
the perfect organization and outfit of his army. His remark to 
a captain of artillery while inspecting a battery, is worth re- 
membering, for it exhibits his theory of success : ' Keep every- 
thing in order, for the fate of a battle may turn on a buckle or 
a linchpin.' He understood so thoroughly the condition of his 
army, and its equipment, that when the hour of trial came, he 
knew how great a pressure it could stand, and how hard a blow 
it could strike." 

Without much changing of words, this terse characterization of 
the sources of Thomas's adequacy to every emergency might be 
applied to Garfield's own readiness to meet the numerous criti- 
cal occasions to which he has always and invariably shown his 
equality. 

As is well known, each State of the Union has the right to 
place in the sculpture gallery of the old Senate chamber tw^o 
statues representing distinguished citizens of the Common- 
wealth. Their reception by Congress is always the occasion of 
memorial speeches by those members who are supposed to be 
best fitted for such discourses. On the 19th of December, 1876, 
an occasion of this sort occurred in the House, in regard to the 
reception of the statues of John Winthrop and Samuel Adams 
from the State of Massachusetts. Garfield's speech was a brief 
one, but it was marked by its felicity of historical allusion and 
patriotic sentiment. Nothing, for instance, could be more 
graceful, in the way of a compliment to two great States, than 
this passage : 



THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 1G5 

" I can well understand that the State of Massachusetts, em- 
barrassed by her wealth of historic glory, found it difhcult to 
make the selection. And while the distinguished gentleman 
from Massachusetts [Mr. Hoar] was so fittingly honoring his 
State by portraving that happy embarrassment, I was reflecting 
that the sister-State of Virginia will encounter, if possible, a 
still greater difficulty when she comes to make the selection ot 
her immortals. One name I venture to hope she will not 
select ; a name too great for the glory of any one State. 1 
trust she will allow us to claim Washington as belonging to all 
States, for all time.' If she shall pass over the great distance 
that separates Washington from all others, I can hardly imagine 
how she will make the choice from her crowded roll. But 1 
have no doubt that she will be able to select two who will rep- 
resent the great phases of her history as happily and worthily 
as Massachusetts is represented in the choice she has to-day 
announced. It is difficult to imagine a happier combination of 
great and beneficent forces than will be presented by the rep- 
resentative heroes of these two great Stales. , , ^ . 

" Vir^^inia and Massachusetts were the two focal centres trom 
which sprang the life-forces of this Republic. They were in 
many ways, ^complements of each other, each supplying whnt 
the other lacked, and both uniting to endow the Kepublic witli 
its noblest and most enduring qualities." 

Nor could there be given better reasons for going back to 
Winthrop and Adams as the especially honored representatives 
of Massachusetts in the Congressional Pantheon than the 
following : 

" Indeed, before Winthrop and his company landed at Salem, 
the Pilgrims were laying the foundations of civil hberty. While 
the Mayflower was passing Cape Cod and seeking an anchor- 
age, in the midst of the storm, lier brave passengers sat down 
in the little cabin and drafted and signed a covenant which 
contains the germ of American liberty. How faimhar to the 
American habit of mind are these declarations of the Pilgrim 
covenant of 1020 : •. ^ ^ :^ 

" ' That no act, imposition, law, or ordiaanco be made or im- 
posed upon us at present or to come but such as has been or 
shall be enacted by the consent of the body of freemen or asso- 
ciates, or their representatives, legally assembled.' ^ 

"The Now England town was the model, the primary cell, 



.1G6 THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

from which our Kcpuhlic was evolved. The town meeting was 
the gerra of all the parliamentary life and habits of Americans. 

" John Winthi jp brought with him the more formal organi- 
zation of New England society ; and, in his long and useful 
life, did more than perhaps any other to direct and strengthen 
its growth. 

" Nothing, therefore, could be more fitting, than for Massa- 
chusetts to place in our Memorial Hall the statue of the first of 
the Puritans, representing him at the moment when he was step- 
ping on shore from the ship that brought him from England, 
and bearing with him the charter of that first political society 
which laid the foundations of our country ; and that near him 
should stand that Puritan embodiment of the logic of the Revo- 
lution, Samuel Adams. I am glad to see this decisive, though 
tardy, acknowledgment of his great and signal services to 
America. I doubt if any man equalled Samuel Adams in 
formulating and uttering the fierce, clear, and inexorable logic 
of the Revolution. With our present habits of thought, we 
can hardly realize how great were the obstacles to overcome. 
Not the least was the religious beli(>f of the fathers — that alle- 
giance to rulers was obedience to God. The thirteenth chapter 
of Romans was to many minds a barrier against revolution 
stronger than the battalions of George III. : 

"' Let every soul be subject unto the higher powders. For 
there is no power but of God : the powers that be are ordained 
of God. Whosoever theiefore rcsisteth the power, rcsisteth the 
ordinance of God.' 

" And it was not until the people of that religious age were 
led to see that they might obey God and siill establish liberty, 
in spite of kingly despotism, that they were willing to engage 
in war against one who called himself ' king by the grace of 
God.' The men who pointed out the pathway to freedom by 
the light of religion as well as of law, were the foremost pro- 
moters of American Independence. And of these, Adams was 
unquestionably chief." 

Ilis concluding paragraph might well be emblazoned in some 
conspicuous place in the halls of both houses of Congress. 
Said he : 

" ]\fr. Speaker, this great lesson of self-restraint is taught in 
the whole history of the Revolution ; and it is this lesson that 
to-day, more, perhaps, than any other we have seen, we ought 



THE LIFE OF GZ>'. JAMES JL. GAKFIELD. 10« 

to take most to heart. Let us seek liberty and peace, under the 
law ; and, following tbe pathway of our fathers, preserve the 
great legacy they have comxaitted to our keeping." 

Os the 16th of January, 1S78, General Garfield introduced 
into the House of Representatives a resolution thanking a very 
liberal, patriotic and philanthropic lady of 3sew York, Mrs. 

Elizabeth Thompson, for the presentation to Congress of 
Carpenter's great painting of President Lincoln and his Cabinet 
at the time of his first reading of the proclamation of emanci- 
pation, and accepting of her gift. On the 12th of February the 
formal presentation and acceptance of the |)ainting by Congress 
occurred. General Garfield was selected by the joint order of 
the Senate and the House, and on behalf of Mrs. Thomj>son, to 
make the speech of the occasion. It was to him a welcome 
task, because of his friendship for the artist, his natural love 
for all works of art, particularly those which illustrated the 
history of our own country, and because of his reverent admira- 
tion of Mr. Lincoln. His speech was not only appropriate to 
the peculiar occasion which gave it birth, but contained an 
estimate of the greatness of Linc-oln and of his place in history 
which is singularly just, truthful and appreciative : and there- 
in, without intending it, he forecast, with considerable simili- 
tude, the position which he was to occupy among the leading 
men of his own party. Much that he said in this passage, of 
Lincoln and his career, will be found applicable to himself and 
his own career : 

" Let us pause to consider the actors in that scene. In force 
of character, in thoroughness and breadth of culture, in ex- 
perience of public affairs and in national reputation, the Cabi- 
net that sat around that council-board has had no superior, 
perhaps no equal, in our historv. Seward, the finished scholar, 
the consunmiHte orator, the great leacer of the Senate, had 
come to crown his career with those achievements whicli placed 
him in the first rank of modem diplomatists. Chase, with a 
culture and a fame of massive grandeur, stood as the rock and 
pillar of the public credit, the noble embodiment of the public 



1G8 THE LIFE OF GEX. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

faith. Stanton was there, a very Titan of strength, the great 
organizer of victory. Eminent lawyers, men of business, lead- 
ers of States and leaders of men, completed the group. 

'' But the man who presided over that council, who inspired 
and guided its deliberations, was a character so unique that he 
stood alone, without a model in history or a parallel among 
men. Born on this day, sixty-nine years ago, to an inheritance 
of extremest poverty ; surrounded by the rude forces of the 
wilderness ; wholly unaided by parents ; only one year in any 
school ; never, for a daj, master of his own time until he 
reached his majority ; making his way to the profession of the 
Jaw by the hardest and roughest road ; yet by force of uncon- 
querable will and persistent, patient work, he attained a fore- 
most place in his profession, 

And, moving np from high to higher, 
Becamt% on fortune's crowning slope, 
The pillar of a people's hope. 
The center of a world's desire. 

'' At first, it was the prevailing belief that he would be only 
the nominal head of his administration ; that its policy would 
be directed by the eminent statesmen he had called to his 
council. How erroneous this opinion was, may be seen from a 
single incident : 

♦' Among the earliest, most difTicult, nnd most delicate 
duties of his administration, was the adjustment of our rela- 
tions with Great Britain. Serious complications, even hostili- 
ties were apprehended. On the 21st of May, 1861, the Secre- 
tary of State presented to the President his draught of a letter 
of instructions to Minister Adams, in which the position of the 
United States and the attitude of Great Britain were set forth 
with the clearness and force which long experience and great 
ability had placed at the command of the Secretary, 

" Upon almost every page of that original draught are eras- 
ures, additions, and marginal notes in the handwriting of 
Abraham Lincoln, which exhibit a sagacity, a breadth of wis- 
dom, and a comprehension of the whole subject, impossible to 
be found except in a man of the very first order. And these 
modifications of a great state paper were made by a man who, 
but three months before, had entered, for the first time, the 
wide theatre of Executive action. 

" Gifted with an insight and a foresight which the ancients 
would have called divination, he saw, in the midst of darkness 
and obscurity, the logic of events, and forecast the result. 



THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



169 



From the first, ia his own quaint, original way, without osten- 
tation or oirense to his associates, he was pilot and commander 
of his administration. He was one of the few great rulers 
whose wisdom increased with his power, and whose spirit grew 
gentler and tenderer as his triumphs were multiplied. 



CHAPTER XV. 

GARFIELD'S CAREER AS A LAWYER. 

In undertaking a brief review of Garfield's career as a lawyer, 
it is impossible to avoid a feeling that it is far more difficult to 
impress on the public mind a fair sense of what he has achieved 
in this direction of activity than as to any other part of his pub- 
lic life. Everybody knows something of the romantic history 
of his early struggles for education. The prominence which he 
rapidly attained in the army and his brilliant record during ite 
period of his service are equally well known. In Congress he 
has been, for over half a generation, conspicuous in the debates 
on all the living issues of the day. But there are few who know 

Note.— It is far from my purpose to go into any elaborate exposure of the 
falsehoods, misrepresentations, insinuations, and misunderstandings as to Gar. 
field's ofl&cial integrity, that are kept alive through malice, and oniy impose en 
ignorance. If he is not an honest man, from core to cuticle, I do not know where 
to find an honest man in public life. But he has perfectly vindicated himae^f. and 
his vindication haa been scattered all over the land. I have before me a copy of 
the Troy Times, whose editor would be the last man to help cover up any official 
^shortcoming or offence of his best friend, which contains, in full, the memora- 
ble speech made by Garfield to his constituents, in the campaign of 1874. at 
Warren, then the headquarters of the most disaffected and hostile Repubiicand 
In his district. At every t^tage of this exhaustive review of these stale scancala, 
that are now daily served up as the nutriment of the unfortunate readers of 
extreme Democratic organs, he pausea for questions. I never read a manlier 
speech. Every accusation and innuendo was frankly and fully met, and the intelli- 
gent man who reads it, and has any remaining doubt of Garfield's absoluto 
integrity, must have a peculiar and unenviable organization. As to the De 
Golyer charge, it was shown to be utterly absurd and baseless. In the first place, 
Garfield, as a member of the Committee on Appropriations, was bound to vote 
for the assessments on Federal property for any pavement properly peti- 
tioned for by a certain proportion of adjacent property holders. He simply 
undertook, for a conditional fee of $5000, to act as assistant counsel to Mr. 
Parsons, wlio was retained by the owners of the De Golyer pavement patent. 
After going into a detailed statement of all the facts in the case, covering nearly 
two columns, he was mterrupted by a question. I give both question and 



THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 171 

the extent of his ability and acquirements in the higher walks 
of the profession which he adopted before going into the army, 
but did not practice until after he had become known as a 
statesman. The extent of the lack of appreciation of what Gar- 
field has actually achieved in this arduous and exacting profes- 
sion is shown in the common statements in Democratic papers, 
which refer to the malicious De Golyer charge, and assume that 
the fee which he received from De Golyer was not paid to him pro- 
fessionally, because he was not entitled to large fees as a lawyer. 
Such has not been the estimate of the distinguished advocates 
of both parties who have tested Garfield's high legal ability by 
actual encounter or in active co-operation. On general princi- 
ples it is difficult for any man to obtain a high reputation in 
the law who has not ascended to eminence by regular gradation 
from the lowest and most primary stages of practice. The rule 
of success and eminence at the bar is generally a course of 
patient apprenticeship, beginning with studying in a lawyer s 

«,. fn fihnw bv a FinHe example, bow thorough was Garfield's method of 
dSwUhhlj';^:.';;;^ or L'" western Reserve," tbe New B,„>.ud 



of the West : 



patents thai coakl properly l^^^ustained 1 made t^at cxamina ^^^^^^ 

first step 1 took iu the case. I ""d^rstand that t lit ^«a ;'^«^^'J \^ ^^^,,^^ „ot. 
that they did not care very much f >o"t t^^ ^ «",J^? fl e ?cm nu lor him.elf-tl.e 
S^.?;of^K;at^n:^J^dl;i^^t^J?:;^u:;^liS.chi.e,and il,ovalidUyor the 

P^^^^^ ^^£;^;!fiSy';S^»^, or neany tlu.t, concerned, it is of some 
importauce to know the relative validity of the patents. 

is the most futile. 



17*^ THE LIFE OF GEX. JAMES A. GAKFIELP. 

office, and peihaps sweeping the same for a year or two, then a 
period of clerkship for as much longer, then petty practice in 
inferior courts and subordinate positions in important cases, 
untU, at mature age, a man finally becomes recognized as a law- 
yer, when admittance into the Supreme Couit of the United 
States with a case to argue there is considered the final attesta- 
tion of his professional standing. Neither as rcg:irds attaining 
eminence in the law nor in any other line of iuitllectual effort 
lias Garfield pursued the beaten and common pith. It so hap- 
pened that the first case in which he ever appeared was one of 
the most important argued in the Supreme Court of the United 
States for many years. He thus, to use a ssulor's maxim, 
"jumped in through the cabin windows," apparently. But it 
w:is not true that he attained this position by boldness or good 
luck. As in the case of his readiness for all great questions of 
statesmanship, he had done the work and pursued the studies 
Avhich enabled him, on his first appearance in this new arena, to 
take his place among the first men in the country. He had 
studied law as thoroughly as any of the legal pmctitioners in 
his neighborhood — studied it in its principles and in its illus- 
trations in English and American history, and was admitted to 
the bar in 1S61 by the Supreme Court of Ohio. He was about 
to form a law partnership and to go into practice when the war 
broke out, but had never tried a case, nor argued one, nor had 
anything to do with one, until he api">eared as one of the coun- 
sel in the f:mious Milligan case, in the Supreme Court of the 
United States. 

On the ISth of January, ISOo, Henry Winter Davis of Mary- 
land and General Garfield made very energetic protests against 
the arbitrary exercise of powers by the subordinates of the Sec- 
retary of War. Xo two members of the House had been more 
devoted or energetic in the support of every measure essential to 
the prosecution of the w;vr ; but in bvMh the love of civil liberty 
was a controlling sentiment. Both were admirers of the tre- 
mendous working jKJwers and efficiency of Mr. Stanton. Both 
were too manly to witness without indignation the tyrannical and 



THB LIFB OF Giy. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



1:3 



lawless acts wMch were cx>mmi:ted by s.^me of Mr. Stanton's 
suboidinates. G^nerd Garneld had had his quick sympathies 
exdted bT * vL^t to vrhat was kr.ov.u as the Old Capit.U nnh- 
urv pnaon, wd spoke with a wannth which excited consider- 
ate attai^OQ at the time. He spoke of the case of one oific^r 
who bad been confined ft* fiTe months in that prison and had 
m4 been fuinislied eT«n with a copy of the char-^es ag^nst 
Mm. aldioaob he bad frequently demanded to know x-rith what 
Clime he w^ char-^ This man bore on his person honorable 
«ais receired Ji the service of his country. He w^- a colonel, 
and was the viciim of the Teageauace of some unknown enemy 
Garfield. aUudin- to the feet that there were many alU-^>d 
cas^ where omcers and citiiens after being cx^nfiuevl for a long 
waiod had been allowed to so out without a word of explana- 
^ COMOUBS other the arrest or the discharge, made this 

manlr appea] : ^ > • 3 * 

-I ask the House of Representatives whether that kind of 
prtctke is to -row up under this Goveriiment, and no man is to 
raise his Ttace^against it c* make any inquiry concerning it lest 
some OM diocM saT he is factious, he is unfriendly to the War 
Department, be is oppoansr the administration. Gentlemen, if 
we «5 BO* »» in our places here, let us stopourears to all com- 
plaints. Let everr department do as it ^le^ses. and with meek- 
ni^and in silence rote whatever appropriatiwis we asked for. 
I do not sav. f<^ I do not know, that the head of any depart- 
ment is res^bkr fi)r these things or knows th«n. It i^y 
bethattbeThaTebe«i done by subordinates It may be that 
the heads <i the diqjartments are not cc^nirant of the facts. I 
«akei»«»isation ; but I do say that it is our business to see 
that^lawsbe respected, and that if a man has no powerful 
friend in court he shall at leasi find the Congress of the United 

States hL< friend. I hope the resohition will not be re^ 
sidered, and I renew the motion to lay on the table the motion 

to lecoBsider. " , 

On eJBK the roll there *ere IS6 j«s .nd only 5 MP, the 

tatter mdoding Mr. SpddiBg »d •Itadd." Stexens : thetm- 



174 THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

mediate effect of which energetic protests of Garfield and Henry 
Winter Davis was a large jail delivery from the Old Capitol 
prison the very next day. 

Garfield based his resistance on the broad grounds which he 
had learned in the history of the development of Anglo-Saxon 
liberty. About that time that great lawyer, Judge Jeremiah 
S. Black, as the attorney of the Indiana Democrats who had 
been opposing the war, came to his friend Garfield and said that 
there were some men imprisoned in Indiana for conspiracy 
against the Government in trying to prevent enlistments, and to 
encourage desertion. The^ yiad been tried in 1864, while the 
war was going on, and, by a military commission sitting in In- 
diana, where there w^as no war, they had been sentenced to 
death. Mr. Lincoln commuted the sentence to imprisonment for 
life, and they were put into State prison in accordance 
with the commutation. They then took out a writ of habeas 
corpus, to test the constitutionality and legality of their trial, 
and the judges in the Circuit Court had disagreed, there being 
two of them, and certified their disagreement up to the Supreme 
Court of the United States. Judge Black said to Garfield that 
he had seen what Garfield had said in Congress, and asked him 
if he was willing to say in an argument in the Supreme Court 
what he had advocated in Congress,, to which Garfield replied, 
*' It depends upon your case altogether." Judge Black sent him 
the facts in the case— the record. Garfield read it over and said, 
" I believe in that doctrine." To which Judge Black replied, 
" Young man, you know it is a perilous thing for a young Re- 
publican in Congress to say that, and I don't want you to injure 
yourself." Said Garfield, " It does not make any difference. I 
believe in English liberty and English law. But," continued 
he, "Judge Black, I am not a practitioner in the Supreme 
Court, and I never tried a case in my life anywhere." Judge 
Black asked, " How long ago were you admitted to the bar?" 
** Just about six years ago." "That will do," Black replied, 
and he took Garfield thereupon over to the Supreme Court and' 
moved his admission. He immediately entered upon the con- 



THE LIFE OF GEK. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 175 

sideration of this important case. On the side of the Govern- 
ment was arrayed a formidable amount of legal talent. The 
Attorney-General was aided by General Butler, who was called 
in on account of his military knowledge, and by Henry Stan- 
bery. Associated with General Garfield as counsel for the pe- 
titioners were two of the greatest lawyers in the country— Judge 
Black and the Hon. David Dudley Field— and the Hon. John E. 
McDonald, now Senator from Indiana. The argument submitted 
by General Garfield was one of the most remarkable ever made 
before the Supreme Court of the United States, and was made 
under circumstances peculiarly creditable to Garfield's courage, 
independence, and resolute devotion to the cause of constitu- 
tional liberty— a devotion not inspired by wild dreams of polit- 
ical promotion, for at that time it was dangerous for any young 
Republican Congressman to defend the constitutional rights of 
men known to be disloyal, and rightly despised and hated for 
their disloyal practices. 

Merely as a lawyer-like presentation of the case, Garfield's 
argument is worthy of special study and commendation. It ex- 
hibits, not the skill and adroitness of a practiced case-lawyer, 
or of a lawyer whose mind has been cramped and narrowed by 
the study of mere precedents and technicalities ; but it is a logi- 
cal and philosophical development of the doctrines and par- 
poses of the Constitution, of the careful limitation of the military 
as of all other powers, and of the fundamental principles of 
civil liberty. 

At the very outset of his masterly argument he affirmed that 
every citizen of the United States is under dominion of law ; 
that whether he be a civilian, a sailor, or a soldier, the Constitu- 
tion provides for him a tribunal before which he may be protected 
if innocent, and punished if guilty of crime. Thereupon he 
proceeded to show the development of the true theory of the 
Constitution by the practice of the fathers, by the decisions of 
our courts, and by the precedents from the English practice. 
Throughout the whole sweep of this reasoning there is shown 
that mastery of English and American history which some of 



17G TUE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GAllFIELD. 

our most eminent lawyers fail to attain. After establisliing his 
propositions by an impregnable array of precedents, the glow 
of the patriotic statesman entered into the argument of the law- 
yer. Speaking of these precedents, he said : 



*' They enable us to trace from its far-off source the prog- 
ress and development of Anglo-Saxon liberty ; its innumer- 
able conflicts with irresponsible power ; its victories, dearly 
bought, but always won — victories which have crowned 
with immortal honors the institutions of England, and left their 
indelible impress upon the Anglo-Saxon mind. These princi- 
ples our fathers brought with them to the new world, and 
guarded with sleepless vigilance and religious devotion. In its 
darkest hour of trial, during the late rebellion, the Republic did 
not forget them. So completely have they been impressed on 
the minds of Americau lawyers, so thoroughly have they been 
ingrained into the very fibre of American character, that not- 
withstanding the citizens of eleven States went off into wild re- 
bellion, broke their oaths of allegiance to the Constitution, and 
levied war against their country, yet with all their crimes upon 
them, there was still in the minds of those men, during all the 
struggle, so deep and enduring an impression on this great sub- 
ject, that even during the rebellion the courts of the Southern 
States adjudicated causes like the one now before you, in favor 
of the civil law and against court-martials established under 
military authority for the trial of citizens. In Texas, Missis- 
sippi, Virginia, and other insurgent States, by the order of the 
rebel President, the writ of habeas corpus was suspended, mar- 
tial law was declared, and provost-marshals were appointed to 
administer military authority. But when civilians, arrested by 
military authority, petitioned for release by writ of habeas corpus, 
in every case, save one, the writ was granted, and it was decided 
that there could be no suspension of the writ or declaration of 
martial law by the Executive, or by any other than the supreme 
legislative authority." 



No Democratic statesman w^ho has used the grand doctrines 
of American and civil liberty, as an ambush behind which to 
tight the prosecution of the war for liberty and the Union has 
ever stated more broadly the English and Americau doctrines 



THS LIFE OF GElf. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 177 

than this young and ambitious Republican politician stated it to 
the Supreme Court of the United States in the first case which 
ever tested his ability and his manhood. Said he : 

*■■ And yet, if this military commission could legally try these 
petitioners, its authority rested only upon the will of a single 
man. If it had the right to try the petitioners, it had the right 
to try any civilian in the United States ; it had the right to try 
your Honors, for you are civilians. The learned gentlemen tell 
us that necessity justifies martial law. But what is the nature 
of that necessity ? If at this moment, Lee, with his rebel army 
at one end of Pennsylvania Avenue, and Grant, with the army 
of the Union at the other, with hostile banners and roaring guns, 
were approaching this Capitol, tlie sacred seat of justice and 
law, I have no doubt they would expel your Honors from the 
bench, and the Senate and House of Representatives from their 
halls. The jurisdiction of battle would supersede the jurisdic- 
tion of law. This Court would be silenced by the thunders or 
war. 

'' If an earthquake should shake the City of Washington, a. id 
tumble this Capitol in ruins about us, it would drive your Hon- 
ors from the bench, and for the time volcanic law would super- 
sede the Constitution. 

*' If the Supreme Court of Ilerculaneum or Pompeii had been 
in session when the fiery rain overwhelmed those cities, its au- 
thority would have been suddenly usurped and overthrown, but 
I question the propriety of calling that law which, in its very 
nature, is a destruction or suspension of all law." 

As to the specious and dangerous plea of necessity, he was 
equally explicit and fearless. Said he : 

" The only ground on which the learned counsel attempt to 
establish the authority of the military commission to try the pe- 
titioners is that of the necessity of the case. I answer, there 
was no such necessity. Neither the Constitution nor Congress 
recognized it. I point to the Constitution as an arsenal, stored 
with ample powers to meet every emergency of national life. 
No higher test of its completeness can be imagined than has 
been afforded by the great rebellion, which dissolved the munic- 
ipal governments of eleven States, and consolidated them into 



178 THE LIFE OF GEN". JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

a gigantic traitorous government de facto ^ inspired with the 
desperate purpose of destroying the Government of the United 
States. 

" From the beginning of the rebellion to its close, Congress, 
by its legislation, kept pace with the necessities of the nation. 
In sixteen carefully considered laws the National Legislature 
undertook to provide for every contingency, and arm the Exec- 
utive at every point with tlie solemn sanction of law. Observe 
how perfectly the case of the petitioners was covered by the pro- 
visions of law." 

Then he went on to i)rove the baselessness of some of the 
charges under which Milligan was convicted, and swept them 
away with a logic and with facts that were irresistible. 

His conclusion showed that the instincts of an American citi- 
zen, who valued his citizenship intensely because the institutions 
of his country had enabled him to make his way upward with 
such brilliant rajDidity, were all-i^owerful and commanding over 
his conduct and his enthusiasms. Said he : 

" Your decision will mark an era in American history. The 
just and final settlement of this great question will take a high 
place among the great achievements which have immortalized 
this decade. It will establish forever this truth, of inestimable 
value to us and to mankind, that a republic can wield the vast 
enginery of war without breaking down the safeguards of lib- 
erty ; can suppress insurrection and ])ut down rebellion, how- 
ever formidable, without destroying the bulwarks of law ; can, 
by the might of its armed millions, preserve and defend both 
nationality and liberty. Victories on the field were of priceless 
value, for they plucked the life of the Republic out of the hands 
of its enemies ; but 

' Peace hath her victories 
No less renowned than war ;' 

and if the protection of law shall, by your decision, be extended 
over every acre of our peaceful territory, you will have rendered 
the great decision of the century. 

" When Pericles had made Greece immortal in arts and arms, 
in liberty and law, he invoked the genius of Phidias to devise a 
monument which should symbolize the beauty and glory of 
Athens. That artist selected for his theme the tutelar divinity 



THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 179 

of Athens, the Jove-born goddess, protectress of arts and arms, 
of industry and law, who typified the Greek conception of com- 
posed, majestic, unrelenting force. He erected on the lieight 
of the Acropolis a colossal statue of Minerva, armed with spear 
and helmet, which towered in awful majesty above the sur- 
rounding temples of the gods. Sailors on far-off ships beheld 
the crest and spear of the goddess and bowed with reverent 
awe. To every Greek she was the symbol of power and glory. 
But the Acropolis, with its temples and statues, is now a heap 
of ruins. The visible gods have vanished in the clearer light of 
modern civilization. We cannot restore the decayed emblems 
of ancient Greece, but it is in your power, O judges, to erect in 
this citadel of our liberties a monument more lasting than 
brass ; invisible indeed to the eye of flesh, but visible to the eye 
of the spirit as the awful form and figure of Justice, crowning 
and adorning the Republic ; rising above the storms of political 
strife, above the din of battle, above the earthquake shock of 
rebellion ; seen from afar and hailed as ])rotector by the op- 
pressed of all nations, dispensing equal blessings, and covering 
with the protecting sliield of law the weakest, tJie humblest, the 
meanest, and, until declared by solemn law unworthy of pro- 
tection, the guiltiest of its citizens." 

Remember that this argument was not only made by a Repub- 
lican politician representing one of the most radical of Republi- 
can districts, but that it was made on the Gth of March, 1800, the 
year before a distinguished soldier, whose sole duty was to en- 
force the laws of the United States, undertook to further the 
schemes of the strong men who had determined to make him a 
Presidential candidate of the party that had opposed him in the 
only field where he had ever been either prominent or active, by 
issuing a series of proclamations which encouraged the revival 
of a rebellious and disorderly spirit in Texas and Louisiana, and 
which were not only insubordinate to the legislative branch of 
the Government, but to his two distinguished military superiors. 
Hancock, the favorite and jyrotege of Andrew Johnson, under- 
took the task of reversing the policy of Sheridan and of Grant, 
after the greatest of all Virginians since Washington, George H. 
Thomas, had absolutely and indignantly refused to do Johnson's 
work and to undo the work of the war. It was not any part of the 



180 THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

duty of a soldier in Hancock's place to indulge in the " glittering 
generalities" which were a misplaced and shallow adaptation of 
the sound and lawyer-like doctrines of civil liberty expounded by 
the cidzen-soldier and the defender of the rights of citizenship, 
James A. Garfield, who had much to fear politically from his 
course, while Hancock had everything to expect from adding the 
incongruous functions of a demagogue to the proper duties of a 
subordinate commander. The people of the United States can 
judge whether Garfield's defense of civil liberty or Hancock's, 
under all the circumstances and conditions, was the more credit- 
able and patriotic. 

The preparation for the argument in the Milligan case was 
necessarily limited in time, but the fundamental principles which 
underlaid Garfield's effort were all thoroughly familiar to him, 
and he needed only to work up the cases and make the appli- 
cation. Realizing fully the importance of the case, he plunged 
with all his vigor into the work of preparation, accomplishing, 
through the help of his unusually vigorous constitution and 
power of rapid work, an immense amount of actual achievement. 
In making out his argument he worked for two days and two 
nights, with the exception of four or five hours of sleep, and 
concentrated in that time what most lawyers would consider 
a fortnight's labor. 

The day before the trial was to come off the counsel were as- 
sembled for consultation to determine upon the policy to be 
pursued, when Judge Black called iipon Garfield, as the junior 
counsel, to give his views first. The diffidence of Garfield in 
responding to this request was very deep and unfeigned, in 
presence of some of the very ablest and most distinguished law- 
yers in the country, to whom he was to show his method of try- 
ing the case ; but he had done his best, and there was nothing 
for him to do except to state his points and the line of his argu- 
ment, which having done, the senior counsel relieved him of all 
apprehension and anxiety' by unanimously telling him, " Don't 
you change a line or a word of that." 

The argument which passed so successfully the ordeal of such 



THE LIFE OF GEls^ JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



18J 



severe critics was equally effectual in court, whose decision wa? 
unanimously in favor of Garfield's clients. It was a great tri- 
umph, one richly deserved by Garfield for his courage m assun^ 
ing the risks of unpopularity with his own party, and not other- 
wise compensated for than in the consciousness of having de- 
fended what he believed to be the true principles of our Govern- 
ment There was certainly little outside encouragement for the 
work which he did in this case. The defendants were poor 
and in prison. Garfield paid for printing his own brief. He 
had never seen his clients, never had any relations with them, 
nor ever received a cent in any way for his service. But his 
argument and his success won for him immediately a high stand- 
incr in the Supreme Court of the United States, and opened to 
him a practice before that and other high tribunals which has 
really afforded to him all the profit which is represented in his 
actual present property, as his compensation in the army and in 
Congress has barely paid the economic expenses of his living. 

One of the plcasantest circumstances connected with his 
argument of the MiUigan case was its effect in deepening the ex- 
isting friendship between himself and his mortal enemy in poli- 
tics, Judge Black, and in increasing Judge Black's already 
strono- admiration for the intellectual, moral, and manly quali- 
ties o1 his young friend. This friendship has continued under 
all circumstances with increasing strength and fervor to this 
day, and has given rise to many other acts of friendship on 
the part of Judge Black than his now celebrated letter defend- 
ing Garfield from the charges in connection with the Credit Mo- 
bilier and other matters. To those who know Judge Black and 
liis unbending, uncompromising integrity of character, it is un- 
necessary to say that no considerations would cause him to write, 
in behalf even of a most beloved brother, such a letter as that 
which has been recently re])ublished in regard to General Gar- 
field and the latter's connection with the Credit Mobilier. 

Among the cases in which Garfield has been retained as coun- 
sel one of the most notable was that known as the great Alex- 
ander Campbell will case, in which he was associated with 



1S2 TUB LIFE OF GE^-. JAMES A. GAllFIELD. 

Judge Black in defence of the will. His senior counsel was 
obliged to leave the conduct of the argument to Garfield en- 
tirely. Alexander Campbell, the founder of the sect known as 
the Campbellites, left about a quarter of a million of dollars, 
and his will was contested on the ground that he was mentally 
infirm from old age when his will was made. The trial lasted 
for ten days, and presented many difficult points, but Garfield 
was successful, and maintained the soundness of the testator's 
mind and the validity of the will. In this case he was well 
l)aid. 

In another case he was the assistant junior counsel of that 
great jurist Benjamin R. Curtis, in the last case which the 
latter ever argued before the Supreme Court of the United 
States, of which tribunal he had been for many years the most 
distinguished ornament. The question involved in this case 
was one as to the effect of war on a life-insurance policy — 
whether a Southern policy-holder by entering the Confederate 
military service forfeited his policy. Judge Curtis and General 
Garfield maintained that he did. It was an entirely new ques- 
tion in the Supreme Court, and its difficulty may be judged of 
from the fact that as one of the nine judges happened to be sick 
the other eight were equally divided, and it was impossible then 
to arrive at a final decision. 

But a year later, after Judge Curtis' death, another case 
came up involving the same discussion, and Garfield was chosen 
by the New York Life Insurance Company to manage it, and 
won it, the Court deciding that war vitiates and renders void a 
policy of life insurance. 

The mention of these cases shows that General Garfield main- 
tained the extraordinary position in the profession which he 
assumed at the very outset. They are mentioned only to indi- 
cate the nature of the practice into which Garfield entered, and 
which has been since continued in a large number and variety 
of important cases, some of which will be referred to elsewhere. 
The records of the American Bar will fail to show any parallel 
instance to that of his splendid beginning and of his maintenance 



THE LIFE OF GElJf. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 183 

of the elevated position to which he at first attained — a position 
reached by few, even among those whose whole lives have been 
given to the professional work, until after they have passed their 
meridian. Of course he has been able to give but a small propor- 
tion of his time to the practice of the law, even for large fees. 
He has never sought cases, but has been obliged to decline a great 
deal of practice which has come to him of its own accord. Still, 
his income has been materially benefited by his fees as a lawyer, 
and altogether they would amount, probably, to a considerable 
sum. The amount he has received has varied very much in 
different years. In some years his receipts from the profession 
would not be over a thousand dollars, while in other years they 
were six or seven times that amount. 



{Oarfidd to B. A. Ilinsdale.) 

Washington, February 2, 1808. 

Toil were etirprised that I introduced the Hancock Bill ; so was I ; but the 
orders and proclamations which he had been issuing were of so insubordinate 
a charactor as to endanger the whole work of reconstruction in Louisiana. It 
was a part of the plan by which the President seemed determined to make it 
appear that the reaction was going to overthrow not only our party, but all its 
work. Even if we should pee that the Government i)lan was not the best, it was 
manifest that a change now would be every way disastrous. Those wlio clamor 
against the plan of Congress most are not able to say what better thing can now 
be done— indeed, they propose liO plan Their only purpose is to get into 
power. Seeing this so clearly, it became manifest that we must rebuke all 
attempts at insubordinate reaction. We must show that our refusal to impeach 
the President did not arise either from want of courage, nor from any purpose 
to abandon our work of reconstruction on the basis of universal freedom. With 
these views I introduced the Hancock Bill, not so much for the purpose of pass- 
ing it as to show him how completely he was in our hands, and that he could not 
make political merchandise of his commission, and read lectures to the National 
Legislature when he ought to be executing its law. I could readily have carried 
the bill through, but preferred to let it hang suspended. I think it has had the 
desired effect, for the General has kept his place ever since. So long as he con- 
tinues to do so, I shall let him alone. 

I sent you a copy of my remarks on the Reconstruction Bill, which will show 
you more at length my reasons. I have been spending all my leisure during the 
past two weeks in studying the cuireu<y question— in going over again the 
ground— and in a week or two shall make a speech on which I expect to stand or 
fall, probably the latter, for I see the tide of wild and insane clamor for paper 
money rising higher and higher. 



18-1 THE LIFE OF. GEJ^. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



iOarJield to B. A. Ilinsdale.) 

Washington, March 8, 1868. 

When your last letter came, I was iu tlie midst of my preparation for the 
Campbell will ca-^e. That case kept me away from the city thirteen days. . , . 

You may be interested to know that the chief burden of the will case fell 
upon me. The trial occupied ten days, and Judge Black left me at the end of 
the second day. Young Richardson, of VVheelmg, waa my only assistant, and 
he was sick part of the time. There were sixty- eight witnesses, and the lawyers 
on the other side spoke over eight hours. 1 had the closing ^peech, and re- 
viewed the testimony and opposing speeches. I spoke six hours and a half. 
The will and codicil were sustained. 1 suppose it may not be immodest for me 
lo say to you that I think I have never done a more creditable piece of intellec- 
tual work than on that trial. . . . 

The State Convention at Columbus has committed itself to some financial 
doctrines that, if I understand them, 1 cannot and will i>ot endorse. If my con- 
stituents approve them, they cannot approve me. Before many weeks my im- 
mediate political future will be decided. 1 care less about the result than I have 
ever cared before. 

{Garjield to B. A. Hinsdale.) 

Washington, April 30, 1874. 

There is much in life to make one sad and disheartened ; but whether wc 
maintain a cheerful spirit or not, depends largely on the way in which we view 
Die events and outcomes of life. 1 think the main point of safety is to look 
upon life wiih a view of doing as much good to others as possible, and, as far as 
possible, to strip ourselves of what the French call egoism. 

The worst days of darkness through which I have ever passed have been 
greatly alleviated by throwing myself with all my energy into some work relat- 
ing to others. Your life is bO much devoted in this direction that I think you 
will find iu it the greatest safety from the dimgcr of gloom. 

• ♦******** 

Those who criticise the paving business, do so without recalling that the fee 
was a contingent one iu which the labor went for nothing if the result was not a 
success. It is everywhere understood that the Ice is larger in consequence of the 
risk the lawyer takes g1 getting nothing, and, when it is considered that the 
work the parties were to do was to amount to $700,000, the contmgent fee of 
Parsons will not be considered an extravagant one. Judge Black charged the 
Phillips Bros. $10,000 for the work we did for them iu Philadelphia, and he had 
two thirds of the fee and I one third. This was on account of the large sum 
involved, namely, $400,000. Nobody would criticise that as an t-xtravagant fee 
under the circumstances ; and yet, the amount involved was little more than one 
half of that involved in the Parson's fee If I had had any reason to suppose that 
the parties were employing anybody else, 1 would not have helped Parsons. 
They gave Parsons no intimation that they were employing anybody besides him. 

{Garjield to B. A. ITitisdale.) 

Washington, January 7, 187G. 
I hardly know what to say of the last year. For many reasons it has been 
very unlike its predecessors. To me it has been full of work, of sickness and 



THE LIFE OF GEN". JAMES A. GARFIELD. 185 

changes. It has brought to me the wonders of the racilic coast. It has brought 
to me some good books and large thoughts. It has brought a revolution in 
political parties. It has brought me for the first time into a legislative minority. 
It has brought me to confront more seriously than ever the proposition to retire 
from public life, and enter upon work for myself. More than any other year of 
my life, it has brought to me a conviction that I have possibly so far sinned 
against my health by overwork that 1 shall never again have the capacity for 
work foimerly enjoyed. It has brought the first death into the small and select 
circle of my Hiram friends iu depriving us of Almeda. It is not a little surpris- 
ing that so few deaths have occurred in our circle for twenty-two years , but 
the shaft will fall thicker and faster hereafter. 

1 ought to have added, the last few months have awakened in me an in- 
creased interest in the law, and I think the year has witnessed considerable in- 
crease in my power as a lawyer. I have followed this [rule : whenever I have 
had a case, I have undertaken to work out thoroughly the principles involved iu 
it ; not for the case alone, but for the sake of comprehending thoroughly that 
branch of the Jaw. And my cases have fortunately covered a wide range. 

1 send you a couple of briefs which 1 have written within the last ten days, 
and which will, iu part, illustrate my meaumg. 



{Garfldd to B. A. Hinsdale.) 

Alliance, Ohio, June 13, 1877. 

You know that my life has abounded in crises and diflicult siiuations. This 
trip has been, perhaps, not a crisis, but certainly has placed me iu a situation of - 
extreme difficulty. Two or thiee months ago, W. B. Duncan, a prominent busi- 
ness man in New York, retained me as hia lawyer in a tuit to be heard in the 
United Statea Court in Mobile, and sent me the papers in the case. I studied 
them, and found that they involved an important and somewhat difficult question 
of law, and I made myself sufficiently familiar with it, sothatwheu Duncan tele" 
graphed me to be in Mobile on the first Monday in June, 1 went with a pretty 
comfortable sense of my readiness to meet anybody who should be employed on 
the other side. But when I reached Mobile I found there were two other suits 
connected with this, and involving the ownership, sale, and complicated rights of 
several parties to the Mobile and Ohio Railroad. 

After two days' skirmishing, the Court ordered the three suits to be consoli- 
dated. The question I had prepared myself on passed wholly out of sight, and 
the whole fcntanglement of an insolvent railroad, twenty-five years old, and lying 
across four States, and costing $20,000,000, came upon us at once. There weie 
seven lawyers in the case besides me. On one side were John A. Campbell, of 
New Orleans, late member of the Supreme Bench of the United States, a leading 
New York and a Mobile lawyer. Against us were Judge Hoadley,of Cincinnatii 
and several Southern men. 1 was assigned the duty of summing up the case for 
our side, and answering the final argument of the opposition. 1 have never felt 
myself in such danger of failure before, all had so much better knowledge of the 
facts than 1, and all had more experience with that class of litigation ; but 1 «n) 
very sure no one of them did so uuuh hard work, in the five nights and t-ix d.ij « 



186 THE LIFE OF GEN^. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

of the trial, as I did. I am glad to tell you that I have received a dispatch from 
Mobile that the Court adopted my view of the case, and gave us a verdict ou all 
points. 

Ab you may imagine, I am good deal used up. 

{,QarJield to B. A. Uinsdale.) 

Washington, Novembers, 1878. 

Last evening I called on Judge Black at the Ebbett llouse and found him 
with a Bible in his hand. He said : '• I don't know any one who has properly 
appreciated the parables of Jesus. I don't believe that the man ever lived who 
could have written any one of them, even the least of them. They are unliUe 
anything in literature or philosophy in their spirit, purpose, and character. If 
they were all that Jesus liad left us, they would be conclusive proofs of his 
divinity." What do you think of this ? The Judge then went on to say that he 
had that morning asked a lady friend to lend him some books for Sunday read- 
ing, and, among others, she had sent him a volume entitled " Alone with Jesus.'' 
"And," said he, "the title repelled me foV two reasons: first, it is a piece of 
spontaneous egoism for any man to assume that ho is of so mnch consequence 
in the universe that Christ would shut out all the rest of the world and attend to 
him ; and, second, I knew a bank cashier who stole everything he could lay his 
hands on, and then ran away in the night. He left behind him a diary full of the 
most pious ejaculations, and the last entry he made in it was this: 'Spent an 
hour of sweet communion alone with Jesus.' This remembrance spoiled the 
book for me, and so I have not read it." 

I spent several hours with him, and found him more than usually brilliajnt. 
He said he was inclined to believe that a man rarely, after he wasforty yearsoldi 
fell in love with a new poet. For his own part no one later than Byron had taken 
much hold on him. Coleridge, Soulhey, and W'ordswoith he had read but little, 
l)iobably because Byron bad so savagely denounced them as the lakers. He has 
no admiration for Tt nny^on, and says he never had the patience to wade through 
" In Memoriam." lie was greatly pleased with my plan of going into the law, 
and proposed to form a soit of special partnership in the cases that he and \ 
might have m the Supreme Court here. This may be of much service to me. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

EDUCATION. 

In the addresses which at various times he has delivered on 
the subject of education, he has disclosed the methods and 
-workings of his own mind, with an unconsciousness of that fact 
which is perfectly characteristic. For instance, in an address 
delivered before the Literary Societies of the Eclectic Institute 
at Hiram on the 14th of June, 1867, he covered the whole 
ground of the disputed educational questions of the day, and 
brought out very strongly many of the theories of education 
which he had evolved from his own experience and reading. 
Take, for instance, his classification of the kinds of knowledge 
that should be the objects of a liberal education. This con- 
forms largely with the classification of Herbert Spencer ; but it 
is broader and deeper by far than Herbert Spencer's, for in 
giving his final definition, which is made comprehensive and 
sweeping, he says that " the student should study himself, his 
relations to society, to nature, and to art, and above all, in all, 
and through all these, he should study the relations of himself, 
society, nature, and art to God, the Author of them all." 

Having started in his education with a passionate love of the 
classics, he had finally reached the point of enlargement by a 
study of the physical sciences, where he began to believe that 
the share of time alloted to classical studies by our colleges was 
too great in proportion, and not arranged in the right order of 
development. To illustrate his views by his own language, 
what he suggested as to the order of study was " that the stu- 
dent shall first study what he needs most to know ; that the 
order of his needs shall be the order of his work." " Now," 
said he, "it will not be denied that from the day that the 
child's foot first presses the green turf till the day when, an old 



188 THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. ' 

man, he is ready to be laid under it, there is not an hour in 
which he does not need to know a thousand things in relation 
to his body, ' what he shall eat, what he shall drink, and where- 
withal he shall be clothed.' If parents were themselves suffi- 
ciently educated, most of this knowledge might be acquired at 
the mother's knee ; but, by the strangest perversion and mis- 
direction of the educational forces, these most essential elements 
of knowledge are more neglected than any other. ' ' 

Further on he said: "It is to me a perpetual wonder that 
any child's love of knowledge survives the outrages of the 
school-house," and added, " I, for one, declare that no child of 
mine shall ever be compelled to study one hour, or to learn even 
the English alphabet, before he has deposited under his skin at 
least seven years of muscle and bone." 

Alluding to the then common college course of study, he 
said : 

"A finished education is supposed to consist mainly of 
literary culture. The story of the forges of the Cyclops, where 
the thunderbolts of Jove were fashioned, is supposed to adorn 
elegant scholarship more gracefully than those sturdy truths 
which are preaching to this generation in the wonders of the 
mine, in the fire of the furnace, in the clang of the iron-mills, 
and the other innumerable industries which, more than all 
other human agencies, have made our civilization what it is, 
and are destined to achieve wonders yet undreamed of. This 
generation is beginning to understand that education should 
not be forever divorced from industry ; that the highest results 
can be reached only when science guides the hand of labor. 
With what eagerness and alacrity is industry seizing every truth 
of science and putting it in harness !" 

Reviewing the extent and variety of knowledge, scientific 
and practical, which the farmer needs in order to reach the full 
height and scope of his noble calling, he asks, " What has our 
American system of education done for this controlling majority 
of the people?" Which question he answers with the single 
fact that " notwithstanding there are in the United States 120,- 
000 common schools, and 7,000 academies and seminaries ; not- 



THE LIFE OF GEJT. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 189 

withstanding there are 275 colleges where young men may be 
graduated as Bachelors and Masters of the liberal arts, yet in all 
these the people of the United States have found so little being 
done, or likely to be done, to educate men for the work of 
agriculture, that they have demanded, and at last have secured, 
from their political servants :n Congress, an appropriation suffi- 
cient to build and maintain, in each State of the Union, a 
college for the education of farmers. This great outlay would 
have been totally unnecessary but for the stupid and criminal 
neglect of college, academic, and common school Boards of 
Education to furnish that which the wants of the people require. 
The scholar and the worker must join hands if both would be 
successful." 

But it was not the lack of utility in the common courses of 
educational training which most awakened Garfield's indigna- 
tion. He was more aroused by the neglect to provide text- 
books for instruction as to the nature of our own Government, 
and as to the history of its development and progress. Said he : 

" For this defect I have neither respect nor toleration. It is 
far inferior to that of Persia three thousand years ago. The 
uncultivated tribes of Greece, Rome, Libya, and Germany sur- 
passed us in this respect. Grecian children were taught to 
reverence and emulate the virtue of their ancestors. Our edu- 
cational forces are so wielded as to teach our children to admire 
most that which is foreign and fabulous and dead. Our 
American children must know all the classic rivers, from the 
Scamander to the yellow Tiber, must tell you the length of the 
Appian Way, and of the canal over which Horace and Virgil 
sailed on their journey to Brundusium ; but he may be crowned 
with baccalaureate honors without having heard, since his first 
moment of Freshman life, one word concerning the 122,000 
miles of coast and river navigation, the 6000 miles of canal, and 
the 35,000 miles of railroad, which indicate both the prosperity 
and the possibilities of his own country." 

Without undertaking to give the full scope of this vigorous 
outline of what he regarded as a style of education adapted to 
the unprecedented conditions of American youth, there is one 



190 THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

passage which is so profound and lofty in its intelligent Ameri- 
canism, that it must be given without regard to its length or 
the lack of space : 

" It is well to know the history of those magnificent nations, 
whose origin is lost in fable, and w^hose epitaphs were written 
a thousand years ago— but if w^ cannot know both, it is far 
better to study the history of our own nation, whose origin we 
can trace to the freest and noblest aspirations of the human 
heart— a nation that was formed from the hardiest, purest, and 
most enduring elements of European civilization — a nation, that 
by its faith and courage has dared and accomplished more 
for the human race in a single century than Europe accom- 
plished in the first thousand years of the Christian Era. The 
New England township was the type after which our Federal 
Government was modelled ; yet it would be rare to find a college 
student who can make a comprehensive and intelligible state- 
ment of the municipal organization of the tow^nship in which 
he w^as born, and tell you by what officers its legislative, judi- 
cial and executive functions are administered. One half of the 
time which is now almost wholly wasted, in district schools, on 
English Grammar, attempted at too early an age, would be 
sufficient to teach our children to love the Republic, and to be- 
some its loyal and life-long supporters. After the bloody bap- 
tism from which the nation has arisen to a higher and nobler 
life, if this shameful defect in our system of education be not 
speedily remedied, we shall deserve the infinite contempt of 
future generations. I insist that it should be made an indis- 
pensable condition of graduation in every American college, 
that the student must understand the history of this continent 
since its discovery by Europeans, the origin and history of the 
United States, its constitution of government, the struggles 
through which it has passed, and the rights and duties of 
citizens who are to determine its destiny and share its glory. 

" Having thus gained the knowledge which is necessary to 
life, health, industry, and citizenship, the student is prepared 
to enter a wider and grander field of thought. If he desires 
that large and liberal culture which will call into activity all 
his powers, and make the most of the material God has given 
him, he must study deeply and earnestly the intellectual, the 
moral, the religious and the aesthetic nature of man ; his rela- 
tions to nature, to civilization, past and present ; and above all, 
his relations to God. Tlicse should occupy, nearly, if not fully, 
half the time of his college course. In connection with the 



THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 101 

philosophy of the mind, he should study logic, the pure mathe- 
matics, and the general laws of thought. In connection with 
moral philosophy, he should study political and social ethics, a 
science so little known either in colleges or Congresses. 
Prominent among all the rest, should be his study of the won- 
derful history of the human race, in its slow and toilsome march 
across the centuries — now buried in ignorance, superstition 
and crime ; now rising to the sublimity of heroism and catch- 
ing a glimpse of a better destiny ; now turning remorselessly 
away from, and leaving to perish, empires and civilizations in 
which it had invested its faith and courage and boundless 
energy for a thousand years, and plunging into the forests of 
Germany, Gaul, and Britain, to build for itself new empires 
better fitted for its new aspirations ; and at last, crossing three 
thousand miles of unknown sea, and building in the wilderness 
of a new hemisphere its latest and proudest monuments. ' ' 



CHAPTER XVn. 

CIVIL SERVICE EEFORM. 

It has generally happened to political parties to have at least 
one question that was peculiarly troublesome. The slavery 
question was the death of the old Whig party, whose composi- 
tion was such that it was impossible that it should stand any- 
thing like a chance of success in a competition with the Demo- 
cratic party for the favor and support of the South. Time has 
brought its revenges, however, and since the war the various 
phases of the slavery question and of the constitutional doctrines 
which were invented to buttress slavery against external 
assaults, have been, at various times,' very ugly things for the 
Democratic party to deal with, and the currency question has 
been still fuller of dangers and disasters. But the question 
of Civil Service Reform has been the peculiar difficulty of the 
Republican Party. It is a party which, as a matter of recog- 
nized fact, contains within itself a large proportion of the best 
educated, the most intelligent, and politically the most consci- 
entious and independent people in the country. While, in some 
of the States of the Union, twenty years of continuous power 
have given to what are known as the " party machines'' a per- 
fection of organization, a thoroughness of drill and discipline, 
and a steadiness of grip, unequalled, perhaps, in the political 
history of the country, there is no State in which the whole 
fabric of organization is not liable to be swept away at any time 
by an uprising of the disinterested intellectual and mcral forces 
within the party, on sufficient provocation and with proper 
direction. And yet, although the party convention in Cincin- 
iiati four years ago adopted an unequivocal Civil Service Reform 
platform, which was received with approbation by pretty much 
all Republicans who were not either running political 



THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GAllFIELD. 193 

''machines" or expecting favors and offices therefrom, it has 
required three years of excellent, pure, successful, and, in some 
respects, magnificent administration, for President Hayes to 
secure from his party the unquestionably general honor, respect, 
and support ^hich he now enjoys. But it would be very unsafe 
to suppose that, with all the human nature there is m any great 
political party, the Republican Party is anything like a unit on 
the subject of Civil Service Reform. It is one thing to be will- 
ino- to fight for freedom in the Territories, or for emancipation in 
aUthe old slave States ; it is quite another thing to fight for 
purity of administration and the abolition of patronage for 
political purposes, when there are so many good people in the 
country who, for themselves or for their friends or relations, are 
entertaining great expectations from the distribution of a hun- 
dred thousand Federal offices. The tendency of the party un- 
questionably is toward Civil Service Reform ; and while the 
Chicao-o platform, for reasons needless to mention here, ignored 
this question in the way of any direct treatment, the convention 
unanimously nominated a man for the Presidency whose record 
on the subject of Civil Service Reform is, in itself, a platform ; 
and that record, if it is not known of all men, easily can be. I 
am sure that General Garfield will not shrink from its minutest 
scrutiny, or from the implied pledges that are contained in his 
various pubhc declarations on this subject. So far as his career 
as a politician is concerned, from first to last, he has been, not so 
much antagonistic to, as distinct from, that class of leaders whose 
power has been strengthened, continued, and perpetuated by 
the creation and preservation of " machines" and the judicious 
disposition of patronage. Garfield has maintained his hold on 
the affections and confidence of the people of his own district 
and of the State of Ohio by virtue of what he has been, and 
said, and done. He never managed a convention or a caucus in 
his own interest, or for his own purposes. He never attempted 
to do so. Even in his contest for the United States Senate, when 
his opponent was a man of such large national reputation and 
deserved personal popularity, he not only did not go near the 



194 THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

scene of the contest, he did not have there any " headquarters ;" 
kept no " grocery ;" made no pledges, bargains, or concessions ; 
authorized and made no personal attacks on his great competi- 
tor, Judge Thurman, and quietly and without excitement awaited 
the result. 

He has been repeatedly and continuously honored by his fellow- 
citizens with their confidence, not because of what he has done 
directly to insure that support, but by virtue of what he has uni- 
formly said and done in the interests of his party and of his coun- 
try. He therefore has, and can have, no sympathy with those 
who oppose Civil Service Kef orm, because it is inconsistent with 
the maintenance of despotic political ' ' machines, ' ' run for their 
own benefit. But he is also an exceedingly practical man. As a 
member of Congress unusually familiar with the wants and tbe 
relative merits of his constituents, he has long acted as their 
friend, their mouthpiece, and their mediator, with the appoint- 
ing power. He knows how utterly impossible it is for executive 
oflicers in Washington to understand, unaided by Congressional 
advice, the relative merits of competing applicants for office, all 
over the vast extent of this country ; and yet he has a constitu- 
tional aversion to acting as an intermediary between office- 
seekers and the Executive. Even the slightest glimpse into the 
activities of a public character which have distinguished him 
ever since he took his seat in Congress would show any one 
how he must begrudge every moment of time given to the mere 
details of providing constituents with offices, no matter how fit 
they may have been for Executive favor. 

But it is far better to allow General Garfield to define his own 
views on a subject so delicate, difficult, and important. He has 
done this in a contribution to the Atlantic Monthly for July , 1877, 
which IS, perhaps, as clear and comprehensive a statement of 
the views of an enlightened and practical statesman, who has 
been in thorough accord with the spirit of the Hayes Admin- 
istration, while he has opposed or criticised many of its methods, 
as could possibly be found. 



THE LIFE OF GIL^. JAMES A. GAIIFIELD. 195 

*' This brings me to consider the present relations of Congress 
to the other great departments of the Government, and to the 
people. The limits of this article will permit no more than a 
glance at a few principal heads of inquiry. ^ ^ -, -, 

"In the main, the balance of powers so admirably adjusted and 
distributed among the three great departments of the Govern- 
ment have been safely preserved. It was the purpose of our 
fathers to lodge absolute power nowhere ; to leave each depart- 
ment independent within its own sphere ; yet, m every case, 
responsible for the exercise of its discretion. But some danger- 
ous innovations have been made. 

" And first, the appointing power of the President has been 
seriously encroached upon by Congress, or rather by the meni- 
bers of Congress Curiously enough, this encroachment origi- 
nated in the act of the Chief Executive himself. The fierce 
popular hatred of the Federal party which resulted in the ele- 
vation of Jefferson to the Presidency led that officer to set the 
first example (rf removing men from office on account of politi- 
cal opinions. For political causes alone he removed a consid- 
erable number of officers who had recently been appointed by 
President Adams, and thus set the pernicious example. His im- 
mediate successors made only a few removals for political rea- 
sons. But Jackson made his political opponents who were in 
office feel the full weight of his executive hand. From that 
time forward the civil offices of the Government became the 
prizes for which political parties strove ; and, twenty-five years 
ao-o, the corrupting doctrine that ' to the victors belong the 
spoils' was shamelesslv announced as an article of political 
faith and practice. It is hardly possible to state with adequate 
force the noxious influence of this doctrine. It was bad enough 
when the Federal officers numbered no more than eight or ten 
thousand ; but now, when the growth of the country, and the 
great increase in the number of public offices, occasioned by the 
late war, have swelled the civil list to more than eighty thousand, 
and to the ordinary motives for political strife this vast patronage 
is offered as a reward to the victorious party, the magnitude of 
the evil can hardly be measured. The public mind has, by de- 
grees, drifted into an acceptance of this doctrine ; and thus an 
election has become a fierce, selfish struggle between the ' ins ' 
and the ' outs,' the one striving to keep and the other to gain 
the prize of office. It is not possible for any President to select, 
with any degree of intelligence, so vast an army of office-holders 
without the aid of men who are acquainted with the people of 
the various sections of the country. And thus it has become the 



190 THE LIFE OF GEN". JAMES A. GAKFIELD. 

habit of Presidents to make most of their appointments on the 
recommendation of members of Congress. During the last 
twenty-five years it has been nnderstood, by the Congress and 
the people, that offices are to be obtained by the aid of Senators 
and Representatives, who thus become the dispensers, some- 
times the brokers of patronage The members of State Legis- 
latures who choose a Senator, and the district electors who 
choose a Representative, look to the man of their choice for ap- 
pointments to office. Thus, from the President downward, 
through all the grades of official authority, to the electors them- 
selves, civil office becomes a vast corrupting power, to be used 
in running the machine of party politics. 

" This evil has been greatly aggravated by the passage of the 
Tenure of Office Act of 1867, whose object was to restrain Pres- 
ident Johnson from making removals for political cause. But 
it has virtually resulted in the usurpation, by the Senate, of a 
large share of the appointing power. The President can remove 
no officer without the consent of the Senate ; and such consent is 
not often given, unless tlie appointment of the successor nomi- 
nated to fill the proposed vacancy is agreeable to the Senator in 
whose State the appointee resides. Thus it has happened thjit 
a policy, inaugurated by an early President, has resulted in 
seriously crippling the just powers of the Executive, and has 
placed in the hands of Senators and Representatives a power 
most corrupting and dangerous. 

" Not the least serious evil resulting from this invasion of the 
executive functions by members of Congress is the fact that it 
greatly impairs their own usefulness as legislafors. One third 
of the working hours of Senators and Representatives is hardly 
sufficient to meet the demands made upon them in reference to 
appointments to office. The spirit of that clause of the Consti- 
tution which shields them from arrest ' during their attendance 
on the session of their respective houses, and in going to and 
from the same,' should also shield them from being arrested 
from their legislative work, morning, noon, and night, by office- 
seekers. To sum up in a word : the present system invades 
the independence of the Executive, and makes him less responsi- 
ble for the character of his appointments ; it impairs the effi- 
ciency of the legislator by diverting him from his proper sphere 
of duty, and involving him in the intrigues of aspirants for 
office ;'it degrades the civil service itself by destroying the per- 
sonal independence of those who are appointed ; it repels from 
the service those high and manly qualities which are so neces- 
sary to a pure and efficient administration ; and, finally, it de- 



THE LIFE OP GE^r. JAMES A. GAEFIELD. 197 

bauches the public mind by holding up public office as the re- 
ward of mere party zeal. 

" To reform this service is one of the highest and most impera- 
tive duties of statesmanship. This reform cannot be accom- 
plished without a complete divorce between Congress and the 
Executive in the matter of appointments. It will be a proud 
day when an administration Senator or Representative, who is 
in good standing in his party, can say as Thomas Hughes said, 
during his recent visit to this country, that though he was on 
the most intimate terms with the members of his own adminis- 
tration, yet it was not in his power to secure the removal of the 
humblest clerk in the civil service of his government. 

''This is not the occasion to discuss the recent enlargement of 
the jurisdiction of Congress in reference to the election of a 
President and Vice-President by the States. But it cannot be 
denied that the electoral bill has spread a wide and dangerous 
field for Congressional action. Unless the boundaries of its 
power shall be restricted by a new amendment of the Constitu- 
tion, we have seen the last of our elections of President on the 
old plan. The power to decide who has been elected may be 
so used as to exceed the power of electing. 

"I have long believed that the official relations between the 
Executive and Congress should be more open and direct. They 
are now conducted by correspondence with the presiding offi- 
cers of the two Houses, by consultation with committees, or by 
private interviews with individual members. This frequently 
leads to misunderstandings, and may lead to corrupt combina- 
tions. It would be far better for both departments if the mem- 
bers of the Cabinet were permitted to sit in Congress and par- 
ticipate in the debates on measures relating to their several de- 
partments, but, of course, without a vote. This would tend to 
secure the ablest men for the chief executive offices ; it would 
bring the policy of the administration into the fullest publicity 
by giving both parties ample opportunity for criticism and de- 
fense." 



CHAPTER XVIIl. 

BY WAY OF REVIEW. 

The reader will have realized before reading this chapter, 
how hard it is to grapple with all the aspects of Garfield's pub- 
lic career, to illustrate which adequately half a dozen volumes 
would be needed. It will only be possible to deal in general- 
ities, with a few salient features of Garfield's public activities and 
private life since he entered Congress. His record as a party 
leader, to begin with, has been exceptional. At every stage of 
his rapid, and yet steady, advance toward the culmination and 
crowning of his leadership, by the spontaneous and unanimous 
action of the assembled representatives of his party, at Chicago, 
he has developed, in growing measure, the rare combination of 
powers and qualities that made him the most honored and pop- 
ular student at Williams, then President at Hiram College, then 
State Senator, and afterward the Chief of Staff of the Army of 
the Cumberland. The reasons for his success have been in him, 
and not in his circumstances or in any adroit scheme to capture 
it. His courage, inherited on both sides, developed by his early 
life, and under fire and amid disaster, in the army, has been of 
that high moral order that dares the censure or criticism of as- 
sociates or constituents, when his clear intuitions of right and 
justice have commanded his action, as they always have. His 
unreserved, confidential letters to Hinsdale and Rockwell and 
other intimate friends, which he never dreamed would see the 
light, show this with the utmost clearness. From his first 
entrance on public life until the Chicago Convention, these let- 
ters show him to have been almost continually acting on con- 
victions not shared by some of his best friends in Congress, and 
unpopular with many of his constituents and with politicians. 
When President Lincoln, in the terrible winter of 1863-4, wanted 



THE LIFE OF GEX. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 190 

Congress to pass an efficient draft law, and begged members to 
pass it, as the only means by which our armies could even be 
kept in the field, there came an occasion when Garfield stood 
up, solitary and alone, and voted in accordance with Lincoln's 
entreaties. When, in the heat of tlie desperate conflict between 
the majority in Congress and President Johnson, there w-as 
exhibited, on the part of the former, some disregard of the 
spirit of the Constitution, Garfield, the Representative of the 
most radical, anti -Johnson district in the country, called a halt. 
When some Kepublican Congressmen failed to see that justice 
and policy demanded that the South should have a fair chance to 
show its acceptance of the results of the war, he was not afraid 
to use the language of prudence, moderation, and wisdom. And 
then, when the " solid South," whose " Brigadiers'' ruled the 
Democratic Congressional caucus, had determined to "starve 
the Government" unless the Executive should surrender his con- 
stitutional prerogatives, he was the leader of the fight that re- 
quired the highest degree of moral courage ever demanded of 
a party leader in Congress. 

In all the sectional and partisan discussions which have 
afforded chances for the display of his powers in Congress, he 
has retained the esteem, confidence, and personal good-will of 
the best and ablest of his antagonists. Among his warmest 
friends are to be found some of the most pronounced represent- 
atives of extreme Southern and Democratic sentiment. They 
know tlic man, and so transparent, ingenuous, and outspoken a 
man is easily known. They know that he has no political passions 
whatever. They know that there is not a legitimate Southern 
interest which would not be certain of justice and liberality at 
his hands ; that sectional hates have no place in his generous 
heart, nor sectional ideas in his broad nature. It is impossible 
to conceive of his enduring for a day the misery of a grudge or 
a jealousy. Least of all, is it possible for him to cherish ill- 
feelings or suspicions toward party associates who have sought 
the same ends that he has, by different methods. The feeling 
of "comradeship" with party associates in public life wbo 



200 TUE LIFE OF GEX. JAMES A. GAKFIELD. 

are actuated by any high sense of the mission and duties of the 
party, is peculiarly warm and strong — no matter what their 
attitude toward him or his policy may have been. He is the 
best friend of the greatest number of men, and the poorest and 
most inefficient enemy, of any man whom I know in politics. In 
fact, the very exuberance of his own activities and the fruition 
thereof, render liim largely unconscious of and apathetic toward 
inter-party contentions and rivalries. 

It is a characteristic of Garfield, as it is of every man whose 
intellectual and moral growth has been healthful, spontaneous, 
symmetrical, and consistent, that whatever thing has once ab- 
sorbed his interest and his energies, has so possessed his whole 
nature that from that time forward only opportunities and oc- 
casions have been needed to develop the views and the pur- 
poses, with larger knowledge and stronger faith, that had be- 
come part of his existence. 

In fact, the prelude and key to his whole public career can 
be found in those terribly hard-working days when he was alter- 
nately teacher and pupil ; when his mind was grasping out in 
all directions with an ambition as broad as Bacon's, wlien he 
wanted to '' possess all knowledge" as his "province," but 
under limitations, amid difficulties, and with a poverty of facili- 
ties which the nature of Bacon never would have surmounted. 
The athletic young teacher, who was the comrade of his pupils 
and the devoted friend of his most accomplished teacher, found 
the full fruition of his functions in his noble and heroic experi- 
ence at Hiram. He was the teacher then in all his instincts, 
with all his force, with all his winning affectionatcncss of 
nature, with all his swift-growing capacity to communicate. 
He has been, ever since and simultaneously, the teacher and the 
pupil. He has been able to illustrate every one of the themes 
which he has been obliged to develop in Congress as a teacher ; 
because no application has been too great, no press of official 
duties too arduous, to j)revent him from sitting reverently at 
the feet of the wisest teachers of all times and filling himself 
up v\ith the abundance from which he has instructed others. 



THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 201 

Being such, it was most natural tliat one of his early and ear- 
nest efforts in Congress was to make a plea for the establishment 
of the National Bureau of Education, which owes its existence 
to his energetic and persuasive advocacy, and which has done 
more good, at less cost, than any other bureau established by 
our own or any other government. 

His speech delivered on the 8th of June, 18GG, passed in view 
the magnitude of the interests involved in the establishment of 
the proposed bureau. In a brief space it covered the progress 
of general education in our own and other countries, and the in- 
crease of the facilities of knowledge, and cited eloquent passages 
from the great men of our own and other lauds. 

In behalf of extending educational privileges, he said, in con- 
clusion : " I know that this is not a measure which is likely to 
attract the attention of those whose chief work is to watch the 
political movements that affect the results of nominating con- 
ventions and elections. The mere politician will see in it noth- 
ing valuable, for the millions of people to be benefited by it can 
give him no votes ; but I appeal to those who care more for the 
future safety and glory of this nation than for any mere tempo- 
rary advantage to aid in giving to education the public recog- 
nition and active support of the Federal Government." 

It was natural that he should keep up and widen his culture 
and his acquaintance with, and friendship for, literary and scien- 
tific men, even during the very thick of tlironging public duties. 
Mr. Spofford, the Librarian of Congress, will testify that n^ 
other member has made such large and constant use of the 
Library as Garfield. He has not been a promiscuous and desul- 
tory reader, except in periods of illness, convalescence, or rest, 
but has taken special themes or fields of inquiry and study, and 
followed them out in all directions. At one time, to illustrate, 
he collected everything he could find in regard to Goethe, his 
development, surroundings, relations to German thought, and 
influence on his contemporaries and successors. I have seen the 
large blank book which is nearly filled with the rich gleanings 
of this comprehensive search, in his own handwriting. So he 



202 THE LIFE OF GEX. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

got from the Library its rarest and most valuable treasures of 
Horatiau literature, whieh he never tires of exploring. One of 
his letters to Colonel Rockwell shows that even in a rough and 
hasty rhythmical transfer of one of Horace's odes he was able 
to display a keen appreciation of the subtle beauties of the most 
artistic of Latin poets. One of the most valued treasures in his 
library is a beautiful Paris edition of Horace, sent to him by his 
distinguished and scholarly friend, Secretary Evarts, for w-hose 
commanding ability as a jurist, advocate, and statesman he 
cherishes an admiration that has been deepened by the intimacy 
growing out of like literary tastes and of common high objects 
of a political character. 

In all his official, professional, and literary work, Garfield has 
pursued a system that has enabled him to accumulate, on a vast 
range and variety of subjects, an amount of easily-available in- 
formation such as no one else has shown the possession of by its 
use. His house at Washington is a workshop, in which the 
tools are always kept within immediate reach. Although books 
overrun his house from top to bottom, his library contains the 
working material on which he mainly depends. And the 
amount of material is enormous. Large numbers of scrap-books 
that have been accumulating for over twenty years, in number 
and in value — made up with an eye to what either is or may 
become useful, which would render the collection of priceless 
value to the library of any first-class newspaper establishment — 
are so perfectly arranged and indexed that their owner, with 
his all-retentive memory, can turn in a moment to the facts 
that may be needed for almost any conceivable emergency in 
debate. These are supplemented by diaries that preserve Gar- 
field's multifarious political, scientific, literary and religious in- 
quiries, studies, and readings. And, to make the machinery of 
rapid work complete, he has a large box containing sixty-three 
different drawers, each properly labelled, in which he places 
newspaper cuttings, documents, and slips of paper, and from 
which he can pull out what he wants as easily as an organist 
can play on the stops of his instrument. In other words, the 



THE LJFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 203 

hardest and most masterful worker in Congress has had the 
largest and most scientifically arranged of workshops. 

Having been entirely contented with the congenial activities 
and pleasant social relations and warm friendsliips of his career 
as member of the House, he has not exerted himself for official 
promotion. The position of United States Senator would have 
been congenial to him, for the reason that it would have given 
him greater leisure for study and culture, and opportunity for 
more preparation in the way of speech-making. But he not 
only never did anything to secure it — intriguing for it would 
have been impossible for him —he declined to accept the candi- 
dacy for it, when it was within his reach, because President 
Hayes and others urged on him the duty of remaining in the 
House, where he was most needed. When his election to the 
Senate did come, it was the spontaneous and unforced result of 
nearly twenty years of good and great service, for his party and 
his country, of which every detail was known to the people of 
Chio. His great antagonist, Judge Thurman, who, two years 
before, had publicly testified his deliberate judgment as to the 
baselessness of the now revived slanders and scandals, was so 
fairly beaten, and by such an overpowering sentiment in favor of 
Garfield, that his supporters, moved by his own lofty spirit, 
joined in support of the motion to make Garfield's nomination 
unanimous, and he was elected without a dissenting vote. By 
this unprecedented vote, the State of Ohio, which knows Gar- 
field from the beginning, and has sifted all the slanders that 
malice and ignorance have combined to invent and keep alive, 
has cast her broad and protecting mantle over the greatest of her 
sons. The prophet that is thus honored " in his own country" 
must have a record that will stand the minutest scrutiny, and 
those who know less of him than his own fellow " Buckeyes" 
should learn all the facts known to Ohioans about Garfield, b'> 
fore attempting to reverse Ohio's judgment. 

Note.— A week afier his election, Garfield had a reception in the Hoase of 
Representatives, at Columbus, and, before the assembled Legislature and a 
large number of other citizens, delivered a speech which was a model of 



2C4 THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

Which inevitably brings me to a few allusions to the only por- 
tion of Garfield's public career which lias ever given him serious 
annoyance. It was that in which arose the wholly inadequate 
foundations for what are known as the "Credit Mobilier," 
" De Golyer," and " Back Pay" scandals. As to them, he has 
made the fullest and most satisfactory explanations to those 
who were most directly interested in ascertaining the exact degree 
of his culpability, if any at all existed. His defences were 
published and widely circulated at the time when our newspa- 
pers and people were in the habit of condemning public men 
as soon as the latter were accused, and then considering whether 
the condemned could "prove themselves innocent," which 
neither the law nor the everlasting principles of justice require 
any man to do. But after epidemics of ofhcial corruption there 
always follow epidemics of promiscuous censure and flaming 

eloquence. It contained one paragraph which would not have been spoken by 
any man, under the circumstances, to men of both parties who had known him 
his whole lile-tinio, had he not enjoyed " a conscience void of offence."' Said 
he : ''And now, gtnt. emeu of the General Assembly without distinction of 
party, I recognize this tribute and compliment made to me to-night. Whatever 
my own course may be in the future, a large share of the inspiration of my 
future public life will be drawn from this occasion and these surroundings, and 
I shall feel anew the sense of obligation that I feel to the State of Ohio. Let me 
venture to point a single sentence ni regard to that work. During the twenty 
years that I have been in public life, almost eighteen of it in the Congress of 
the United States, I have tried to do one thing. Whether I was mistaken or 
otherwise, it has been the plan of my life to follow my conviction at whatever 
personal cost to myself. I have represented for many years a district in Con- 
gress whose approbation I orfontl_, ^lesired ; but though it may seem, perhaps, a 
little egotistical to say it, I yet desired still more the approbation of one person, 
and his name was Garfield. [Laughter and applause] He is the only man that 
lam compelled to sleep with Llaughtei], and eat with, and live with, and die 
with ; and if I could not have his approbation, 1 should have bad companion- 
ship. [Renewed laughter and applause.] And in this larger constituency, 
which has called me to represent them now, I can only do what is true to my 
beat self, applying the same rule. And il I should be so unfortunate as to lose 
the confidence of this larger constituency, I must do what every other fair- 
minded man has to do— carry his political life in his hand and take the con- 
sequeuces But 1 nmst follow what seems to me to be the only safe rule of my 
life ; and with that view of the ca^c, and with that much personal reference, 1 
leave that subject." 



THE LIFE OF GEN. JAME3 A. GARFIELD. 



205 



virtue. The drift-wood of a wave of fierce and ill-considered 
newspaper comment on Garfield is still preserved and displayed 
by malignant partisan organs, probably to the annoyance of the 
respectable journals that have seen and admitted how unjust 
were their hasty contemporary criticisms. Thus the very dregs 
of the Past are cherished and thrust into the living waters of 
the Present. 

There is nothing new or strange about these reiterations of 
charges that have been fully met and answered, even to the 
satisfaction of so independent, critical, and almost cynical 
a judge of public men as the Nation. The charges against Gar- 
field are mild, tame, and colorless compared with those that 
were persistently brought against Washington, Jetferson, the 
two great Adamses, Jackson, and Clay. Even without the con- 
clusive testimony of the man who knew all about the facts on 
which these charges rest, and who has always been a biiter polit- 
ical foe of Garfield, Judge Jeremiah S. Black ; without the 
testimony of Judge Poland, the chairman of the committee that 
investigated the '' Credit Mobilier" scandals ; without the com- 
prehensive defences made by Garfield himself, which satisfied a 
most exacting and enlightened constituency ; without the testi- 
mony in his behalf of such an able representative of the most 
ao-oressive Democracy of the South as Henry Watterson ; no 
man who knows Garfield well-his history, his opportumties for 
making fortunes by the undiscoverable and unpumshable exer- 
cise oi his ofiicial opportunities as chairman of the Committee 
on Appropriations ; the constant narrowness of his means for a 
plain though generous style of living ; his struggles with 
debt • the ingenuousness of his nature and its utter freedom 
from guile, craft, or deceit-would listen with patience, much 
less with credence, to the stale scandals that can no more affect 
the people's judgment of his character for integrity, than would 
any sort of scandals as to the courage of Grant or Sheridan, the 
honor of Bayard, the truthfulness of Washington, or the purity 
of Channing, affect the people's judgment as to the traits assailed. 
Whoever knows Garfield knows that corruptiomsm could no 



v'OG THE LIFE OF GEX. JA^ES A. GARFIELD. 

more taint his blood than cowardice could have blanched the 
cheeks of Sir Philip Sidney. And if I have succeeded in im- 
parting to my readers any tolerable conception of the sort of 
man that lie, by his ancestry, breeding, habits, life, and trials, 
has become, they would be olfended by any elaborate defence 
of his character against scandals that cannot be made to stick 
to it. 



[Mr. Ceorgc William Curtis, iu Ilai'per'^s WecMy, has pierced the heart of tho 
*' Credit Mobilier'' slander with a single arrow from a full quiver. Says he : 
*' The authors of the report— [the Poland Report] — may have thought it necessary 
to show their impartiality by eacrificiug eome of their own party friends. But 
whatever the reason of their action, the whole case, so far as Mr. Garfield is con- 
cerned, is a question of veracity between him and Oakes Ames. Comparing 
Ames's testimony regarding Mr. Garfield with ihat in reference to others, it will 
he seen that when he testified from memory, he acquitted Mr. Garfield entirely, 
and afterward, in every case except that of Mr. Garfield, he produced some doc- 
umentary evidence, certificates of stock, receipts of money or di\ideuds, checks 
bearing the full names or the initials of the persons to whom they purported to 
have been paul, or entries iu his diary of accounts, marked 'adjusted und closed.' 
No such evidence, or any other but Mr. Ames's assertion and his diary, was pro- 
duced in Mr. Garfield's case, and nobody ever pretended or supposed that such 
evidence exists or ever existed. The admitted facts of the transaction, and the 
character of Mr. Garfield, never before or since impeached by frieud or foe, and im- 
peached in this case not only by a man engaged in bribery, but who confesses that 
he may be mistaken, who cam ot explain why he did not give Mr. Garfield the 
ptock which he said Mr. Gai-field had paid for, and who does not pretend to say 
why Mr. Garfield did not ask for the rest of the money which was due to him. 
have already completely acquitted Mr. Garfield in every candid mind." ] 

(Garjidd to B. A. Bimdale.) 

Hiram, October 26, 1865. 
I do not remember to have claimed that St. Cyril was tinctured with Neo- 
platonism ; but I did say that the Church at Alexandria was considerably influ- 
enced by the doctrines of that sect. I have looked into it a little and find a con- 
siderable variety of opinions among different authors. Gibbon speaks of it as 
an attempt to reconcile the doctrines of Plato and Aristotle, and says that as a 
philosophy it is unworthy of notice. It is only important as connected with 
Christianity. The bigotry and folly of the Church persecuted it. Gibbonscom- 
mentator says the Neoi)latonist8 were not at war with Christianity, but desired 
to apply their i)hilo^ophy to the religion of Christ. Gibbon speaks of it also as 
an attempt to revive Paganism. See also his interesting account of Julian th«r 
Apostate, who was a Neoplatonist for a while. 



THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. C ARFIELP. 207 

{Garfield to B. A. Hinsdale.) 

Washington, Febmary 2, 1871. 
I appreciate all the difficulties of the Governorship question as you present 
them. I have answered our friends in the Legislature by positively refusing to 
be a candidate, and have tried to explain to them the grounds of ray refusal. 

I think there is great danger of my giving offence by this course, but I can- 
not help it. I may see the case differently hereafter, but I think not. 

{Garfield to B. A. Mnsdale.) 

Washington, January 1, 1872. 

In regard to the authenticity and purity of the Shakespeare text I have made 
some considerable study, and with what I have already done, I hope to be able 
to get something for you at the library either in the way of a loan or of refer- 
ence, and I will attend to it soon. . . . 

Have you seen the new book on Physical Geography by the French writer 
Reclus ? A translation has ju«t been published in New York, 1 have looked 
over it, and think it a remarkably valuable book. The Evening Post has said of 
it within the past two or three days that it is the completest work extant on that 
subject. 

(Garfield to B. A. Hinsdale.) 

Washington, January 11, 1872. 
The Senatorship went as I expected it would. I may say to you, however, 
that the Democrats tendered to me their unauimous vote, and enough Republi- 
cans to elect with the help of the Democrats expressed themselves willing to 
bolt from the caucus nomination. It was, I confess, some temptation with some 
risk. A position obtamed in that way would have been an independent one. 
But, on the whole, though the Democrats did not demand any conditions, I felt 
I would be considered as placed under obligations, and therefore declined. What 
say you, was it wise or otherwise ? 

{Garfi^d to B. A. Hinsdale.) 

Washington, February 22, 1872. 

Yours of the 16th instant is received. I am glad to know that somebody has 
related the subject of the Holy Roman Empire in an intelligent way. It has al- 
ways been to me one of the dark points in European history. I shall get the 
book without delay, and read it as soon as I can steal time enough from work and 
sleep. 

Since I wrote you last I found a book which interests me very much. You 
may have seen it ; if not, I hopfe you will get it. It is entitled " Ten Great Re- 
ligions," by James Freeman Clarke. I have read the chapter on Buddhism witk 
great interest. It is admirably written, in a liberal and philosophical spirit, and 
I am sure will interest you. What I have read of it leads me to believe that wc 
have taken too narrow a view of the subject of religion. 



208 THE LIFE OF (JEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

{Garjleld to B. A. Hinsdale.) 

Washington, December 31, 1872. 

The astoniKliing reverses of political life during the past year mark an epoch 
in our history and tend to sadden one's views of that kind of a career. There 
is aomethiug so touching, «o pathetically tragic in the last days of Mr. Greeley, 
that it throws a shadow over all the walks and ways of public men. 

We are in a singular condition here in Congress. There is virtually no op- 
position to the Republican party. The Democracy are stunned, perhaps killed, 
by their late defeat, and there seems to be no limit to the power of the dominant 
party. If to its great strength it shall add, as I fear, arrogance and recklessness, 
it will break in two before the next administration goes far. 

The Credit Mobilier scandal has given me much pain. As I told you last fall, 
I feared it would turn out that the company itself was a bad thing. So I think 
it will, and perhaps some members of Congress were consciously parties to its 
plans. It has been a new form of trial for me to see my name flying the rounds 
of the press in connection with the basest of crimes. It is not enough for one 
to know that liis heart and motives have been pure and true if he is not sure but 
that good men here and there, who do not know him, will set him down among 
the lowest men of doubtful morality. There is nothing in my relation to the 
case for which the tenderest conscience or the most scrupulous honor can blame 
me. It is fortunate that I never fully concluded to accept the offer made me • 
but it grieves me greatly to have been negotiating with a man who had so little 
sense of truth and honor as to use his proposals for a purpose in a way now ap- 
parent to me. I shall go before the committee, and in due time before the House, 
with a full statement of all that is essential to the case so far as I am concerned. 
You and I are now nearly in middle life, and have not yet become soured and 
shrivelled with the wear and tear of life. Let us pray to be delivered from that 
condition where life and nature have no fresh, sweet sensations for us. 

{Garfield to B. A. IRmdale.) 

Washington, January 27, 1873. 

Yon have seen the second testimony of Mr. Ames is utterly in conflict with 
his first, and clearly inspired by a desire to protect himself against the threatened 
suit of the company to account to them for the stock he did not sell as pretended. 
I am involved, as the whole subject now is, in a storm of general obloquy and in 
the falsehoods which Mr. Ames has thrown into it. No one can tell the extent of 
damage it will work to individual reputations. It is clear to my mind that I shall 
sujEfer to some extent in consequence of his wickedness. 

He has produced a pretended memorandum of an account with me— a mem- 
orandum of his own making— which he says be copied from his books ; but 
these he has not produced. 

The only course for me to take for the present is to bear in silence whatever 
is cast upon me until the investigation is concluded. Then F shall speak. The 
condition of panic into which the public mind is thrown makes it nearly impos- 
sible either to speak or listen with calmness and judicial fairness. In th« mean- 
time I bespeak the patience of my friends. 



THE LIFE OF GEX. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 209 



{Garfield to B. A. Hinsdale.) 

Washington, February 8, 1873. 

Nothing new has transpired since you wrote except that Ames has been or- 
dered to bring his original books and memoranda. None of the papers that he 
presented to the committee in the form of accounts were original except the re- 
ceipts in Patterson's case. He does not pretend to have any receipts from me, 
nor any other evidence of the points iu which our testimony contiicts. The com- 
mittee themselves have been stampeded by the general spirit of panic that has 
prevailed, and, though some of them are good lawyers, they have not applied the 
rules of evidence to this investigation. I think the indications are that the men 
here are recovering their balance a little, and begin to think with more calmness 
on the merits of the case. But it is, even yet, too early to tell into what conclu- 
eiona the public judgment will settle down. . . . 

I expect Judge Black in town to-day, and I have no doubt that he will re- 
member that I gave him three years ago the same account of my relation to the 
Credit Mobilier as I have given in my testimouy. 

{Garfield to B. A. mnsdale.) 

Washington, February 15, 1873. 

Ames has come and made whatever exhibi tion his memorandum-book enabled 
him to make. I cannot see that he has added anything to the strengthening of 
his case by the production of the book. The impression here is beginning to 
prevail that he fixed up his memorandum for use with his company, to make 
them believe he had effected sales of his stock. 

I think it is clear that Ames intended to get members of Congress interested 
iu this company without saying anything to them to indicate his purpose. He 
does not pretend to have any receipt of mine or any other evidence but his state- 
ment in his book of the transaction which he alleges took place between us. 

The investigation is really done now, and the report will probably be finished 
in the course of three or four days. 

{Garfield to B. A. Hinsdale.) 

Washington, March 19, 1873. 

lam thoroughly disgusted with the way my vote on the salary question is 
treated, and I feel as if there was but little use in attempting to resist the sense, 
less and wicked clamor which is being raised on the subject. 

It is very singular to notice how differently the subject is treated in different 
parts of the country. In some, at least, the increase of S:ilaries, together with 
the retroactive clause, is stoutly defended, and but little criticism is made. 

I feel this morning, though I would not say this except to you, like throwing 
up my position in disgust and retiring from a field where ten years of honest 
work goes for naught in the face of one vote, of which, at the very most, it can 
be said to be only a mistake honestly made, and which could not possibly have 
changed the result. 

Were it not for the Credit Mobilier I believe I would resign. 

I have not drawn the additional salary, and do not know that I shall. Cer- 
tainly, I shall not for the present, and probably not at all. But this 1 will not 
say in the midst of this storm. 



210 THE LIFE OF GEX. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

{Garfield to B. A. Hinsdale.) 

Washington, March 21, 1873. 
When I find that I voted no less than fifteen times against motions made in 
favor of tho salary amendment, and did all in my power, both by speech and 
vote, to prevent it, I feel keenly the injustice with which the public are treating 
me on this subject, and I begin to get really angry over it. 

{Garjkld ioB. A. Hinsdale.) 

Washington, April 4, 1873. 

I agree in all you say on the question of bacs-pay ; but neither truth nor 
ability seemed to avail anything in the face of this temptation. I not only have 
never drawn the extra pay, but, nearly two weeks ago, I ordered the Sergeant- 
at-Arms to clothe my account, and directed my back-pay due me, $4500, to be 
covered into the Treasury beyond my reach, or that of my heirs in case of my 
death. That has been done ; but I felt that under no circumstances would I 
allow it to be known publicly, at least for the present. It may, however, be 
necessary by and by to let the fact come out. What do you think ? 

***** *♦* 

One phase of this case is most singular. Here in Washington, among all the 
men who most earnestly opposed the salary clause from the start,! have none 
who attack me for the course I have taken, while at home the condemnation 
seems to be universal. You know that I have always said that my whole public 
life was an experiment to determine whether an intelligent people would sustain | 
a man in acting sensibly on each proposition that arose, and in doing nothjug i 
for mere show or for demagogical effect. I do not now remember that I ever J 
cast a vote of that latter eort. Perhaps it is true that the demagogue will suc- 
ceed when honorable statesmanship will fail. If 8o, public life is the hoUowest 

of all shams. , „ 

{Garfield to Col. A. F. BockweU.) 

Washington, May 21, 1873. 
After many years of prosperity and success, it has been my fortune to try 
the discipline of disaster, without any fault or wrong on my part. My name has 
been dragged into the whirlpool of falnmny. and I have been defending myself 
against assault. I enclose yoii a copy of my review of the Credit Mobilier ras- 
cality, and shall be glad to know how it etrikes you. I think of you as away, 
and in an elysium of quiet and peace, where I should love to be, out of the 
Btorm and in the sunshine of love and books. Do not think from the above that 
I am despondent. There is life and hope and fight in your old friend yet. 

[^Garfield to Col. A. F. Rockwell., 

Washington, January 15, 1874. 
Permit me to transcribe a metrical version which I made the other day of 
the third ode of Horace's first book. It is still in the rouijh : 

TO THE SHIP WHICH CARRIED VIRGIL TO ATHENS. 
I. 

So may the powerful goddess of Cyprus, 
So may the brothers of Helen, twin stars, 
So may the father and ruler of tempest 
(ReBtraining all others, save only Ir.pix"). 



THE LIFE 01' GBN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 213 



II. 

Guide thee. O ship, on thy journey, that owest 
To Attica's shores Virgil trusted to thee. 
I pray thee restore him, in safety restore him, 
And saving him, save me the half of uiy soul. 

III. 
Stout oak and brass triple surrounded his bosom 
Who first to the waves of the merciless sea 
Committed his frail bark. He feared not Africus, 
Fierce battling the gales of the furious North. 

IV. 

Nor feared he the gloom of the rain-bearing Hyads, 
Nor the rage of fierce Notus a tyrant than whom 
No storm-god that rules o'er the broad Adriatic 
l3 mightier, its billows to rouse or to calm. 

V. 

What form, or what pathway of death him affrighted, 
^ Who faced with dry eyes monsters swimming the deep, 
Who gazed without fear on the storm-swollen billows, 
And the lightning-scarred rocks, grim with death on the shore ? 

VI. 

In vain did the prudent Creator dissever 
The lands from the lands by the desolate sea, 
If o'er its broad bosom, to mortals forbidden. 
Still leap, all profanely, our impious keels. 

VII. 

Recklessly bold to encounter all dangers, 
Through deeds God forbidden still rushes our race ; 
The son of lapelus, Heaven-defying, 
By impious Iraud to the nations brought fire. 

viit. 
When fire was thus stolen from regions celestial 
Decay smote the earth and brought down in his train 
A new summoned cohort of fevers o"erbrooding, 
And Fate, till then slow aud reluctant to strike, 

IX. 

Gave wings to his speed and swift death to his victims. 
Bold Daedalus tried the void realms of the air, 
Borne upward on pinions not given to mortals. 
The labors of Hercules broke into Hell. 

X. 

Naught is too high for the daring of mortals. 

Even Heaven we seek iu our foily to scale : 

By our own impious crimes we permit not the thunder 

To sleep without flame in the right hand of Jove. 

I can better most of these verses, but send them to you as I left them in the 
first rough draft. 

{Garfield to B. A. Hinsdale.) 

Washington, July 30, 1873. 
In the course of thinking over j^oiir life and mine, I was strongly impressed 
with the convicticm that "ou and I ooght to study Geruiaii and master it. 1 had 



212 THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

considerable knowledge of iteome years ago, but have neglected it and ehould 
need to begin the work almost anew. French Las been more important to me, 
for the reason that more financial ditcuss-iou appears in French than in Geiman. 
But to profound theological scholarship German is indispensable. I think 
Vour juind is rather of the Teutonic type, and you would be immeasurably bene- 
fited were you to draw from the great German storehouse of criticism. It is a 
large undertaking to master a foreign language ; but 1 think vou ought to under- 
take It at once. 

(Garfleld to B. A. Hinsdale.) 

Washington. October 27. 1873. 

I have read the paper of Mr. Warren, as reported in the Methodist, and have 
stopped to consider the marked passage. Tlie statement of the author in refer- 
ence to the part played by Whitefield in laying the foundation of colonial unity, is 
new to me. I do not know that it is historically true ; but it bears many external 
evidences of truth. If it is true, it is a very important element in the history of 
this Republic, and shows that religion played even a broader part in the forma- 
tion of our nation than I had supposed. After reading the article, I read a brief 
sketch of Whitefield's life in Brown's Encyclopaedia, and find some discrepancies 
between that and Warren. For example, Warren says that Whitefield crossed 
the Atlantic nineteen times. The Encycloptedia mentions each of his voyages 
by dale, and eaya that his seventh was his last. This would make thirteen times 
across the Atlantic. The Eocyclopyedia seems to have viewed Whitefield's life 
mainly from an English standpoint, and it may be for that reason that his 
American work does not stand out in such prominence in the Encyclopaedia as 
in Warren's article. 

If I had had time in my lecture last evening, I should have spoken of the 
struggle between Protestantism and Catholicism for the possession of this conti- 
nent. Warren's article informs us how striking was the contrast between the 
unity of the ecclesiastical power of France and Spain on the one hand, and the 
discord of the English Protestants on the Atlantic slope on the other. If White- 
field brought about ecclesiastical union, he prepared the way for the colonial 
triumph of England over France in 1763, and the triumph of the colonies over 
England in 1783. 



{Garfldd to B. A. Hinsdale.) 

Washington, January 8, 1874. 
I can't see that he (John Stuart Mill) ever came to comprehend human life 
as a reality from the actual course of human affairs beginning with Greek life 
down to our own. Men and women were always, with him, more or less of the 
nature oi abstractions ; while, with his enormous mass of books, he learned a 
wonderful power of analysis, for which he was by nature surprisingly fitted. But 
his education was narrow just where his own mind was originally deficient. He 
was educated solely through books ; for his father was never a companion. His 
brothers and sisters bored him. He had no playfellows, and of his mother not a 
word is said in his autobiography. 



THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 21o 

> ' {Gaijidd !o B A. Hinsdale.) 

Washington, March 31, 1874. 
I have sent you by to-day's mail copies of such of ray pamphlet speeches as 
I have on hand that are not in the list 3 ou sent me. This is not all, but it is nearly 
all : Argument before Supreme Court, March 6th, 18GG ; Public Debt and Specie 
Payments. March 16th, 1866 ; Freedmau's Bureau, February 1st, 1866 ; In Me- 
moriani Abraham Lincoln, April 14th, 1866; Rebel States mider Military Co.i 
trol, February Sth, 1867; College Education, June 14th, 1867 ; Reconstruction, Jan- 
uary irth, 1868 ; Impeachment of Andrew Johnson, March -^d, 1868 ; Oration at 
Wilmington, May 30lh, 1866 ; Elements of Success. June 29th, 1869 , Public Ex- 
penditures and Civil Service, March 14th, 1870 ; The TariH, April Ist, 1870 ; The 
McGarrahan Claim, Febnzury :^>Oth, 1871 : Public Expenditures, January 23d, 
187;i ; National Aid to Education, Fel)ruary 6ih, 1872 ; Campaign ou the Reserve, 
July 31st, 1872: Increase of Salaries, March 27tli, 1873 . Credit Mobilier Company, 
May Sth, 1873; Revenues and Expenditures, MarcU Sth, 1874. 



.# 



(Girjitld toB. A. llimdaU.) 

Washington, April 20th, 1874"" 
The latest news from Columbus seems to indicate that the re-districting 
scheme has broken down. Still, it may possibly succeed, and George II. Ford 
writes me he believes it will before the session ends. Personally, I shall be glad 
to be districted out, so that I can have a good excuse for quitting public life; 
bat I am still receiving requests to change my residence, so as to slay lu the old 
Nineteenth. 

{Garjie'd to B. A. Hinsdale.) 

WASHiNGroM, November 11, 1874. 
I have commenced work again on my committee, but still I may find time 
to do some reading. My reading, however, is like the wanderings of a man in 
a pleasant forest, without much plan or purpose. I am now, however, trying lo 
get abetter view of the Lterature and intellectual life of Germany connected 
with Goethe and his times. 



{Garfield lo B. A. Hia-^d.de.) 

Washington, January 4, 1875. 
With me the year 1874 has been a continuation and in some respects an ex- 
aggeration of 1873. That year brought me unusual trials, and brought me ftice 
to face with per-sonal assaults and the trial that comes from calumny and pub- 
lic displeasure. This year has perhaps seen the culmination, if not the enH, of 
that kind of experience. I have had much discipline of mind and heart in liv- 
ing the life which these trials brought me. Lately I have bet n studying my 
self with some anxiety to see how deeply the shadows have settled around my 
spirit. I find I have lost much of that exuberance of feeling, that cheerful 
spirit which I think abounded in me before. I am a little graver and less geiiia) 
than I was before the storm struck me. The consciousness of this came to me 
slowly, but I have at last given in to it, ana am trying to counteract the tend- 
ency. 



;^14 THE LIFE OF GEX. JAMES A. GAKFIELD. 

So far as individual work is concerned I have done gomething to keep alive 
my tastes and habits. For example, since I left you 1 have made a somewhat 
thorough ttudy of Goethe and his epoch, and have sought to build up in my 
mind a'picture of the state of literature and art m Europe, at the period when 
Goethe began to work, and the state when he died. 1 have grouped the various 
facts into order, have written them out, so as to preserve a memoir of the im- 
pression made upon my mind by the whole. The sketch covers nearly sixty 
pages of manuscript. I think some work of this kind outside the track of one's 
every-day work is necessary to keep up real grow th. 

{Garfield to B. A. TTinsdale.) 

Washington, July 8, 1875. 

I am taking advantage of this enforce.! leisure to do a good deal of reading. 

Sm^ I was taken sick I have read the following: Sherman's two volumes; 

^Hm's " English Gipsies ;" George Borrow'a " Gipsies of Spain ;" Sorrow's 

^^^^Emany Rye ;" Tennyson's "Mary ;" smen volumes of Fronde's England; 

^PKt plays of Shakespeare, and have made some progress in a new book, 

which 1 think you will be glad to eee, "The History of the English People," 

by Prof. Green, of Oxford, in one volume. 

{Garfield to B. A. ITinsdale.) 

Washington, October 22, 1877. 
Since receiving your postal card I hare read Godwin Smiih's essay on the 
Decline of Party Government. To me it is altogether a disappointing paper. 
Many of his facts and suggestions are interesting, but his suggesiious of substi- 
tution for party government are too vague to be of any value, while there are 
grave differences of opinion among men on questions of vital importance, 
whether in church or state, in social life or in science. There will be parties 
based upon those conditions, and the thing most desired is not how to avoid the 
existence of parties, but how to keep them within proper bounds. 

(Garfield to B. A. Hbudale.) 

Washington, November 14, 1877. 
It is in the power of the Democratic Party to make the whole country rejoice 
in the President's Southern policy : 1 ut I fear thdr usual reactionary spirit will 
go far to increase public dissatisfaction. 

(Garfield toB.A. Hinsdale.) 

Washington, January 9, 1878. 
Concerning the future I feel no great certainty. On many accounts I prefer 
(o retire from public life, and may do so ; but the present struggle for honest 
money seems to make a very imperative demand on me to stand by my post a 
little longer. 

If it were certain that the Democrats are to come into power— and that eeema 
to be probable— both in the Nati«mal Government and to continue in power in 



THE LIFE OF GE:N". JAMES A. CxAllFIELD. 5^15 

Ohio. I would not feel like continuing. It will take tht nest election to deter- 
mine Ohio's future. 

On the whole, it is probable I will stand ai;ain fur the House. I am not sure, 
however, but the Nineteenth District will go back on me on the silver question 
If they do I shall count it an honorable uischarge. 

{Garfield to B. A. Hinsdale.) 

Wasuington, October 12, 1878. 
The result of our election shows the value of a sturdy fight for principle. 
The party that makes that will always win in the long run. 

{Garfield toB. A. Hinsdale.) 

■Mentor, Omo, November 16, 1878. 
I have read with great interest and satisfaction your little volume on the 
Christian Jewish Church. 1 know of no work which contains within such small 
compass so complete and thorough a discussion of the subject. Your analysis of 
the early struggle between the Jewish and Greek Christians, and the peculiar 
influences of the Jewish and Greek mind upon tlie historical development of 
Christianity throws a strong and clear light upon many portions of the New Tes- 
tament, and affords valuable assistance to the study of chuicli history. The 
whole book is pervaded with the spirit of thorough and reverent scholarship, 
and you deserve, and doubtless will receive, the gratitude of a wide circle of 
readers. 

{Garfield to B. A. Hinsdale.) 

Washington, January 30, 1879. 
I have long recognized the class of citizens whom you designate as the 
" left centre," that occupy that broader line of the two parties, and hold slack 
allegiance to the organization of which they are membe s. 1 have no doubt they 
exercise a valuable conservative influence upon the conduct of public afCairs by 
resisting extreme measures on the part of their party. Of course, they exercise 
their power as voters and writers. I think, however, there never has been any 
;3uch prominent class in Congress. Of course, we have had men in both parties 
who were less partisan than the majority of their associates, and who have, in a 
measure, represented the voters referred to. Perhaps it would be well if we had 
a recognized party of the left centre in Congress ; but I doubt if that would be 
possible under our institutions. 

{Garfield to B. A. Himdcde.) 

Washington, April 21, 1880. 

I share your regret that I am so much absorbed in political work ; but the 
position I hold in the House requires an enormous amount of surplus work. I 
am compelled to look ahead at questions likely to be sprung upon us for action, 
and the fact is, I prepare for debate on ten subjects where I actually take part 
in but one. For example : it seemed certain that the Fitz-John Porter case 
would be discussed in the House, and I devoted the best of two weeks to a care- 
ful re-examination of the old material and a study of the new. 

There is now lying on top of my bookcase a pile of books, revisions and 



216 rilE LIFE OF GEX. JAMES A. GAKFIELD. 

manuscripts three feet loug by a foot and a half high which I accumulated 
and examined for a debate which ceitainly will not come off this session, and 
perhaps not at all. 1 must stand in the breach to meet whatever question 
comes. . . . 

1 look forward to the Senate as at least a temporary relief from this heavy 
work. . . . 1 am just now in antagonism with my own party on legislation 
ill reference to the election law, and here also I have prepared for two discus- 
sions, and as yet have not spoken on either. . . , 

Doubtless you are right in supposing that the government is, in some cases, 
the mo.-t imperfect part of the social organism. That is so because all free gov- 
ernments are managed Ijy the combnicd wisdom and folly of the people. Per- 
haps, as a mere matter of government, a good despot would make a better gov- 
ernment ; but for the education of the people govt-rned, a good despotism is 
worse than freedom with its admixture of folly. . . . 

I am sorry you did not write me in regard to my going to Chicago. I have 
refused to be a delegate from my district, but I think it likely that the State 
Convention will elect me as delegate at large. I prefer not to go at all, but, if I 
am chosen, I suppose 1 had better go. 



{Garfield toB. A. Hinsdale.) 

Washington, January 18, 1880. 
Atfii-st, let me say that among the 1200 letters and telegrams that have come 
tome since my nomination to the Senate, no one has touched all the points of 
the case so perfectly as you have in your letter of the 13th instant. I need not 
say a word about the nomination and election and my relations to it, for you have 
said it all. This, however, I may say on another phese of the subject : on many 
accounts my transfer to the Senate brings sad recollections. Do you remember 
the boy "Joe" in one of Dickens' novels who said that everybody was always 
telling him to " move on," that, whenever he stopped to look in at a window to 
long for gingerbread, or catch a glimpse of the pictures, the voice of the inexo- 
rable policeman made him '• move on V" 1 have felt something of this ni the 
order that sends me away from the House. It is a final departure. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

HOME LIFE AT WASHINGTON AND MENTOR. 

General Garfield is one of the most domestic of men. For- 
tunate in the home of his early life, where love, self-sacrifice, a 
cheerful Ttiligious sentiment and perfect purity made the atmos- 
phere of -Tiis life a constant source of healthful inspiration ; en- 
gaged early to a woman who has been his fellow-student, best 
counsellor and friend, sharer of all his nobler ambitions, activi- 
ties, joys, and sorrows, and helpmeet in every sense of the 
w^ord ; with his heroic mother as companion and friend, in his 
growing household ; with children who are worthy scions of 
noble stocks— intelligent, promising, loving and lovely in char- 
acter ; with a nature simple in its tastes, affectionate, hospita- 
ble, averse to social display and fashionable distractions, and 
utterly incapable of enjoying vicious or undomestic pleasures- 
how could such a man's home help being filled with the warm 
sunlight of his generous nature, or be other than a well-spring of 
happTness to all under its roof-tree ? Of necessity Garfield has 
had two homes since he entered Congress. From his limited 
means his domestic life in both places has been plain, and not 
until within a few years past has he been able to live in both 
places in a style suitable even for a family so quiet and simple 
in its tastes and social ambitions as his own. In fact, it has 
only been within a very few months that the Ohio home— that 
in which Garfield's free and farai-bred nature feels most at ease 
—has been at all suflacient for its master's needs. And this 
Mentor home, which the name " Lawnfield " aptly doscribea 
owes its enlargement and architectural transformation to the 
taste and contriving skill of his thoughtful and plannin.^x wife, 
who, like many others who saw his proportions before the peo- 
ple and his natural destiny, long before he realized or thoughi 



218 



THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GAPtFlELD. 



of either, barely got lier grareful and enlarged conceptions 
realized in the new home, in time to have its generous capacity 
tested to the uttermost by the throngs of visitors and guests, of 
high and low degree, who have compelled General Garfield, in 
the language of Governor Foster, to " keep a country hotel" 




GEN. GARFIELD'S WASHINGTON HOME. 



ever since the Presidential lightning struck the biggest head 
there was at the Chicago Convention. 

To the Washington home I have already alluded. It is plain, 
well arranged, roomy, comfortable, and economical. When the 
family are in it, there is no limit to its hospitality : it is always 
-s^pen to friends, new and old, high and humble, plain and cul- 



THE LIFE OF (JEX. JAMES A. GAIIFIELD. 219 

tiired. It is filled ■with the mingled atmosphere of politics, 
literature, sociality, family culture and sports, and general good- 
nature. One might say it was a literary and political workshop 
and headquarters, if it were not such a centre of social gather- 
ings and pleasures. Fortunately it is not a large house. In 
that case Garfield would have been a bankrupt before this ; for 
he is as free in his hospitalities as he is disinclined and unfitted 
for making money by any other way then by honestly earning 
it, which he always has done, "by the sweat of his brow." 
But his old and intimate friends have lung felt that there was 
but one house in Washington that was adequate for a man of 
his nature, means, and popularity. It is very large, and surround- 
ed by fine grounds, that afford pleasant prospects and breathing- 
room for the big-lunged and iSiature-loving farmer of Mentor. 
It is nobly situated between the Treasury building and that occu- 
pied by the State, War, and Navy Departments, with the business 
and occupants of which he has become so familiar that the loca- 
tion of the house I speak of seems to be better suited to his 
probable needs than to those of any other man in the country, 
and certainly no other man has been better trained for the busi- 
ness to which a large part of the house has always been devot- 
ed. Popularly this is called " the White House." 

The new Mentor home, however, is the most notable and 
visited place in the country, and all the housekeeping tact and 
ability of 3Irs. Garfield are put to their severest test by the crowd 
of visitors. That she was equal to every emergency, and seemed 
at the end of each day's " country hotel " keeping as fresh, 
undisturbed, and free of care-marks as though the daylight 
hours had passed in elegant leisure, I can testify from an ex- 
perience of an eight days' visit in the latter part of June and 
the first of July, when " Lawnfield " was busiest and most 
l)opulous. In that eventful j^eriod for the Garfield household I 
failed to see that Governors and Senators and Congressmen and 
Generals and committeemen fared any better or were treated 
with more courtesy than "common people." If Governor 
Foster's arrival was hailed with unusual fervor it was not be- 



THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 221 

cause of his title, but because he was greeted as the old friend 
" Charles" or " Charlie Foster" by the older, and as " Uncle 
Charlie" by the younger members of the family. His response 
(o all these greetings was hearty, but especially to the last. 

Driving along the wide, pleasant, well-kept, tree-shaded 
road, for six miles from the lovely town of Painesville, with lawn- 
surrounded houses worthy of the finest suburbs of New York, 
the tirst impressions of " Lawnfield " are decidedly attractive. 
The aspect of the large, w^ell-proportioncd and home-like prod- 
uct of Mrs. Garfield's skill and taste is that of the country 
place of a family who want plenty of room, in-doors and on 
piazzas Although costing far less than w^ould be thought 
economical for a carriage-house up the Hudson, it is by no 
means an ordinary or uninteresting structure. To be particu- 
lar : with its sixty feet of front and fifty of depth ; with its 
three stories, including that under tfie high and picturesque 
roof ; wnth its commodious piazzas without and wide hallways 
within, and graceful proportions generally, it is a piece of 
architecture that grows in one's esteem, especially as it so 
admirably fits in to a lovely landscape and is dignified by the 
number of the out-buildings, large and small, all suggesting the 
uses of actual farming and also perfect arrangement. With en- 
closed grass fields in front and on the south-western side ; with 
the croquet lawn between it and the road ; with the orchard and 
garden on the east, and a lane iu the rear through which the 
sunset glories transfigure the bordering trees, and with the book 
and desk and table filled little house qear and to one side of 
the rear, it suggests truthfully the living and working place of 
a family enjoying Nature's most human aspect — that in which 
she responds to all of healthy, hard-working, simple human 
nature's needs and tastes. Its interior arrangements show care- 
ful and thoughtful provision for the several and various de- 
mands of the family, especially the cosey and cheerful up-stairs 
" snuggery " of the General, and the delightful room, on the 
ground floor, with the front piazza on '^ne side, the garden on 
another, and the parlor on another, devoted to the uses of the^ 



222 THE LIFE OF GEX. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

most important and one of the busiest members of the house 
hold, independent, individual, and unique "Mother" Garfield, 
who is as bright and vigorous as most old ladies of sixty or less, 
and between whom and her "James*' there is a comradeship 
which is only abandoned when, in her judgment, the compli- 
ments of distinguished guests seem likely to make him unmind- 
ful of his proper filial subordination. And yet, six months be- 
fore the Chicago Convention, this mysterious and j^rophetic old 
lady one day startled her son by entering his room, saying 
oracularly, "James, you wdll be nominated for President next 
June," and departing without saying or waiting for another 
word. She knew what she and Providence had been training 
him for, as only a mother, and such a mother, can know by the 
mingled intuitions of heart and head. 

The household was enlivened by the presence of the Gen- 
eral's two eldest boys, Hlirry A. and James, just returned from 
the famous St. Paul's School, at Concord, New Hampshire, the 
former bringing a well-earned prize for English declamation. 
There were, besides, INIoUie, a bright, joyous, beautiful girl just 
in her " teens ;" Irvin McDowell, next younger, and Abram, the 
youngest and most peculiar of a flock that has in it no " black 
sheep," together with the son and daughter of Colonel Rock- 
well, of about the ages of Harry and MoUie. These are not 
mentioned by way of mere chronicling of personalities, but to 
illustrate the spirit that pervades the household of which they 
were the life and light. With all their varied studies and sports 
the father and mother seemed to sympathize, and fully entered 
into, as though the latter w^ere but "children of a larger 
growth." Love took the place of authority on the one side, 
and of fear on the other, and I believe the father had a more re- 
alizing and prouder sense of his boy Harry's success and manly 
promise than of his own triply accumulated political honors. 
Nor could 1 see that any member of the family seemed to be 
p\it ai all out of his or her spiritual gear by the constant and 
inevitable allusions of visitors to the probable destiny of thfc 
plam head of the housenold. One might have supposed that It 



THE LIFE OF GEN. JAiVIES A. GARFIELD. 223 

had " run in the family" to have Presidential honors, to which, 
be it added, few allusions were made by any of its members, 
though all were pervaded with a pleased consciousness of the 
future, except the General himself, who does not welcome the 
approaching close of the free and unfettered activities that 
have so long been the joy of his vigorous life. And he did wel- 
come every good chance to escape from the work of dealing 
with thousands of letters and dispatches and continual politi- 
cal calls and conferences, to talk over old times and inci- 
dents and to discuss questions far removed from politics. If 
ever a Presidential candidate was free from self-consciousness, 
and regarded himself only as the standard-bearer and represent- 
ative of a great party and great principles, James A. Garfield is 
the man. 

And he is best seen and known at his Mentor home, which 
he began to " make" three years ago last spring. He had felt 
a growing longing for his old-time relations with Nature, when 
by hard labor he earned his support from her bounties. He 
wanted the soul-resting labor of actual farming, and to get 
fresh vigor from actual contact with " Mother Earth." So he 
bought part of the farm he now owns, and has added until it 
comprises about one hundred and fifty acres. Like most of the 
farms that border the old turnpike, or " ridge-road," near the 
shore of Lake Erie, it has a small frontage, only fifty rods, and 
runs back, across the " ridge," about a quarter of a mile in the 
rear, which was the old and wave-beaten shore of the lake, 
down across the low and spring-moistened alluvial soil of the 
beautiful valley, in the middle of which, on the tracks of the 
Lake Shore Railway, the long and thundering trains, bearing 
the mighty traffic of twenty States, suggest the heavy pulsations 
of a nation's vigorous life. As his wife enlarged and gave 
beautiful proportions to tlie home-nest, so he mixed his practi- 
cal and scientific farmer brains with the soil he set out to mas- 
ter. A wet and uncnltivable field between the '• ridge" and the 
railroad was scientifically drained and made capable of big 
corn crops ; a hydraulic ram was put in the low laud near the 



224 niE LIFE OF GEX. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

ridge, which received and Avas worked by the copious and 
pure spring water from the gravelly ridge, and made to send a 
constant and abundant supply for house and out-houses, for 
people and for their dumb servants. A workshop, a tool- 
shop, a root-house, improved agricultural machinery, and the 
other outfits of a good farm were added. And in all the farm- 
work the master easily took the lead, working with a will and 
until tired nature brought the solid rest that is not given to 
brain toilers. By this sort of actual companionship with Na- 
ture he has recuperated from the prodigious overwork of legis- 
lation and politics, got renewed strength, and preserved his old 
simplicity of tastes. lie has got a more valuable crop out of 
that farm than is harvested from the largest of the famous 
Minnesota wheat domains, that rival principalities in size and 
value. 

Two quite different opportunities of seeing Garfield in his 
relations with his fellows, outside of politics, were afforded 
during my visit. The first was the Fourth of July celebration 
at Painesville whose peculiar interest drew out the largest and 
best attendance of " AYcstern Eeserve" people ever known in 
that handsome town, for there was to be witnessed the formal 
dedication of a noble " Soldiers' Monument," in the park-like 
"Public Square," which had been many years in course of 
completion, and then everybody wanted to see and hear their own 
long-trusted and beloved representative, as of old, before the 
nation claimed him. There was a long and interesting proces- 
sion, and there were several good speeches. Ex-Governor Cox, 
the main orator, was scholarly and eloquent, of course ; the Hon. 
A. G. Riddle recalled, by his off-hand short speech, the mem- 
ories of old-time irresistible pleas before "Western Reserve" 
juries, and Trihine correspondent E. V. Smalley, as one of the 
first company of Painesville volunteers, warmed up into a most 
effective style of reminiscence. But no one had a fair chance 
of securing the full attention of the thousands of intelligent 
and earnest people who swarmed around the speakers' stand 
and "oack out of ear-shot, save the prit!e and glory of the " dis- 



THE LIFE OF GEN^. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 225 

trict," Garfield. And, moving around the crowd that hung 
breathlessly on every glowing and thrilling utterance of the 
" citizen-soldier,'' I could see how the " old Western "Reserve" 
"rises at" Garfield and holds him in its heart of hearts, as 
greater than Giddings, yet unspoiled by success and unconscious 
of the fulness of his powers. 

" ThQ. Fourth" came on the third, at enterprising Paincsville. 
The next day, Sunday, afforded a totally different experience. 
I was asked to go to the "Disciples" meeting-house, about a 
mile toward Painesville, and attend the worship there, and went, 
as did pretty nearly all the Garfield family. The meeting- 
house is a small, old-fashioned rural Xew England sort of 
temple, built of boards and painted white, with commodious 
horse-sheds around. The attendance was not large, but of peo- 
ple who looked earnestly religious, in their plain and primitive 
way. There was no "preacher," in the usual sense of that 
word. But in the preacher's seat was General Garfield's prac- 
tical, original and independent old friend and adviser, one of 
the most noted characters in the "Reserve," Dr. J. P. Robi- 
son, who, when young Garfield first seriously contemplated the 
task of getting a college education, carefully examined the 
brawny and brainy youth, at the latter's request, and told him 
that he "had the brain of a Webster," and lung power and 
muscle to support it. In his younger career the doctor was a 
famous and successful lay preacher, but with his large and 
varied business and farm interests, and advanced years, he con- 
fines his public exhortations to his own neighborhood church. 
His discourse was a plain and pungent and sometimes sarcastic 
and humorous attack on all human substitutes for, and addi- 
tions to, the revealed word of God. He classed the complex 
modern "theologies" with the "mythologies" of old, and, 
while admitting the value of a thorough theological training, 
could not help alluding to the learned doctors of divinity 
whose preaching yielded few converts, while "Paul stole out 
of jail, converted a whole family, and got back so quickly that 
fie was not missed." I confess that the plain and powerful talk 



22G THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

of this vigorous old man, whose grip on worldly realities and 
business is remarkable, and who seemed so equally sure of the 
*' eternal verities'' of the Gospel, with his unconsciously splen- 
did contempt for any human assumptions of divine authority, 
gave me an impression not at all unfavorable to the " Dis- 
ciples" persuasion. After the preaching was over he asked 
the congregation to " sing a song," and proceeded, with the aid 
of two deacons, to administer the " Lord's Supper," as is done 
every Sunday by the " Disciples." The ceremony was impress- 
ive by its very simplicity and evident sincerity. After the 
broken bread had been blessed and partaken of, the doctor 
asked *' Brother Garfield " to ask a blessing on the wine, and 
the latter did so, with the manner of one who was per- 
forming a simple and customary duty. Altogether the services 
were exceedingly suggestive of the apostolic times and of the 
notion that much might be learned from the misunderstood and 
humble *' Campbellites." They gave me a much clearer con- 
ception of the natural and normal character of Garfield's 
"preaching," in his early manhood, and for this reason had 
special value and significance. And it seemed to me that when 
a man so brilliantly successful in politics is so endeared to all 
his old neighbors, and moves them so deeply, one day, by 
his thrilling expressions of eulogy for the dead heroes of the 
war in which he freely exposed his own life, and the next day, 
among those with whom he has long worshipped in simplicity, 
is an earnest and devotional leader, he has a largeness and 
wholeness of nature and life that inevitably draw to him the 
best sentiments of the people who know him best. 

{Garfield toB.A. Hinsdale.) 

WAsm-tiHTON. D. C, February 14, 18T5. 
I don't remember whether I have ever called your attention to a book which 
has given me a great deal of pleasure, and which 1 think in an admirable help 
to young people in laying the foundation of a knowledge of Shakespeare. You 
may be familiar with it, but I never saw it until this winter. It is Shakespeare 
written in a condensed and attractive form, by Charles and Mary Lamb, and 
published in Bohn's Library. It gives but eighteen pages to each play, and puts 
the story in so plain a way that a very young child can understand it. The vol' 
ume ctfntairiB sketcheti of about half of the plays. About twice a week I read 



THE LIFE OF GEX. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 227 

one of these stories to the children, and even Mollie gets a pretty fair under- 
Btandin r of the story. Not only this, but they give other and much clearer 
notions of the plot of the play than the reading of the whole play ordinarily 
gives. 

{Garfield to B. A. Hinsdale.) 

Mentor, Ohio, May 13, 1877. 
You can hardly imagine how completely I have turned my mind out of its 
usual channels during the last four weeks. You know I have never been able to 
do anything moderately, and, to-day, I feel myself lame in every muscle with 
too much lifting and digging. I shall try to do a little less the coming week 



CIIAPTEH XX. 

CONCLUSION. 

Let us, in conclusion, consider a few of the remarkable fea- 
tures of Garfield's character and public career. 

In the first place, his career may be said to be, perhaps, the 
most remarkable illustration of the developing power of our 
institutions that was ever afforded. Exception to this might be 
taken as regards two instances : first, that of Franklin ; but 
Franklin accomplished by far the most important achievements 
of his life after he had passed the age of fifty, which Garfield 
has not yet reached ; second, that of Lincoln, who is consid- 
ered by many profound thinkers to have been the greatest man 
ever begotten on this continent ; but Lincoln was one of those 
rare natures which seem to be peculiarly inspired for great emer- 
gencies ; and although he rose from the lowest origin, through 
a life of comparative poverty and great toil, to the highest hon- 
ors of the Republic, yet his greatness seems to have been more 
a special gift of Heaven than the result of the steady develop 
ment, improvomont, and culture of a great brain. 

The stories about the toils and privations endured by Garfield 
in his boyhood and early manhood will deservedly endear him 
to the popular heart, for the lesson they afford is one full of 
cheer and insx)iration to the millions of young Americans whose 
circumstances compel them to meet like hindrances to culture 
and development. But it is quite possible that too much may 
be made of these popular illustrations, which tend to divert 
from consideration the fact that from the age of seventeen until 
he graduated from Williams the determination, energy, inflex- 
ible purpose, and lofty resolves of young Garfield were concen- 
trated on higher ob^'ects than those which command the ambi- 
tion of most of that arge class of men who are known as " self- 



THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIE/D. 



229 



made men," aud whose successes are purely selfish m their 
character. Garfield's spirit and whole life during this heroic 
period of struggle were of a totally different sort from those 
which have bee^n displayed by men who have sprung from pov- 
erty and obscurity into a wealth or political power that was 
made the ultimate end of life. He pursued culture and knowl- 
edge for the sake of developing the powers he felt within him 
— krgely for the sake of culture, but also in order to enable him 
to fuffil, in some worthy sphere of usefulness, the highest func- 
tions of his nature, and to exercise the widest scope of his 
powers. In all human probability, he has been, since the age 
of seventeen, the " growingest" specimen of human nature 
under process of development in this country. Whoever will 
undertake faithfully to go through the various evidences and 
products of his activity for a little over a generation will fully 
coincide with this propo^idon. No subject of human interest 
has been foreign to the searchings, sympathies, and thinking of 
^his athletic student. An American of Americans, he has ab- 
sorbed, in the generous juices of his soul, all the elements of 
knowledge, culture, faith, and aspiration which come most 
definitely within the broad domain of American history, pat- 
riotism, philosophy, and forecast. Living near the shore of one 
of the chain of lakes that constitute our Mediterranean, and 
in a region central to the better settled parts of the Union, his 
sympathies have been as broad as the continent ; his consum- 
ing love of nationality has been that of a man who desires, 
lAot to extend the power of the nation over any portion of it as 
a despotism, but that every portion shall equally and to the 
fullest extent enjoy all the privileges and advantages of the 
National Government which he believes the fathers established 
♦' to promote the general welfare. ' 

As to Garfield's political career, there are many points of sin- 
gularity. It has been seldom in the history of this country that 
a young man elected to the House of Representatives has main- 
tained himself in the confidence and affections of nis constitu- 
ents to such a remarkable degree. Elected nine successive 



230 THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

times, with sucli growing popularity, especially during the last 
three campaigns, tliat he could have been re-elected again and 
again, to all human appearance, as long as he chose to remain 
in the House — he has maintained this length and eminence of 
public service without having had to depend on the methods 
by which other statesmen have continued for long periods in 
one or the other branch of Congress. To illustrate : The early 
founders of the Republican Party who served in Congress for 
long periods won their popular strength mainly by the zeal, 
ardor and constancy with which they devoted themselves to 
the one idea which was the animating purpose of the Republi- 
can Party up to the beginning of the war. After the war be- 
gan, most of these men continued their hold upon the public 
confidence and that of their constituencies by continuing their 
old w^ar cries. Other members of Congress w^ho have served 
several terms have been able to do so by the support of large 
financial or other interests, which they have made it their pecul- 
iar mission to aid. Still others have achieved the same sort of 
success by their adroitness, care, skill, tact or boldness in 
manipulating caucuses and managing conventions. From all 
these public men, many of them w^orthy and useful statesmeui 
Garfield has been widely differentiated. He has had no special 
hobby in Congress, but has impartially and energetically devot- 
ed himself to the advocacy of what he has regarded as the right 
side of every great and living issue that has been presented 
since he entered that body. His speeches have been as remark- 
able for the great scope of subjects which they embraced as was 
the course of studies which he pursued in obtaining the knowl- 
edge and culture that were to be the main elements of his 
success. 

There has been a steady crescendoin his career which impresses 
every one who realizes its peculiar nature, with the conviction 
that it cannot be thwarted or arrested in its development. 
There have been plenty of heroic and romantic incidents in it, 
and a wealth of varied honors, but each successive step has 
seemed so natural to so strong a will and to so stalwart and uir 



THE LIFE OF GEi^^. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 231 

ceasingly aud variously active a brain, that it is taken as a mat- 
ter of course. It is what would be " the unexpected " to must 
men that has been " happening" to him pretty much all his 
life. That the poor (;anal boy should become a college Presi- 
dent was romance enough for one career. That the college 
President should be spontaneously chosen a State Senator and 
become a leader in critical times was a fresh marvel. That the 
preaching and legislating college President should jump from 
his chosen avocations into the new business of fighting aud be- 
gin military life as acting Brigadier-General, win the title by a 
series of rapid and brilliant operations, become Chief of Staff 
of a large army by another jump and win a Major-General's 
commission by pure moral and intellectual courage and power, 
was something to which the history of our great war offers no 
parallel. That the youngest member of Congress, coming from 
the army in mid-war times should be the first to give the best 
energies of his nature to a determined grapple with questions 
of finance and lay the foundations of the most consistent and 
fruitful career in the development of sound theory and wise 
practice in dealing with problems of taxation, tariff and cur- 
rency, was, again, enough to distinguish any public man. And 
so we might go on, carving out of the achievements and successes 
of Garfield material enough to answer for several distinct and 
distinguished careers and biographies. 

All of which unconsciously led him to, and prepared him for, 
the unsought, unplanned triumph at Chicago, which was not 
only the most wonderful event in all political history, but the 
most perfect instance of the resistless strength of a man devel- 
oped by all the best and purest impulses, forces, and influences 
of American institutions into becoming their most thorough and 
ablest embodiment, in organic and personal activity, aspira- 
tions, and character. The finest feature of the English form of 
government, the virtual crowning of victorious leadership, was 
reproduced in the Convention of the party that has wielded the 
greatest powers for twenty years, and has learned how to gov- 
ern as no other party ever did learn. The whole history of 



232 THE LIFE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 

Garfield's relations %vith the Convention, which he entered as 
the sincere and single-minded friend of Sherman, is full of sig- 
nificance. Day after day it became unconsciously more and 
more convinced that the nominator, and not one of the dis- 
tinguished nominees, was the man of the hour, for the time, for 
the official leadership of the party whose existence was exactly 
coeval with the political activity of Garfield, and whose rank 
and file he had most fully represented on every field of conflict. 
When the party crowned with its highest honors the most per- 
fect type of American development, by American processes, 
methods and institutions, it gained a fresh lease of life and 
power by recognizing the solid foundations of our institutions 
and became the most genuine Democracy, as well as the wisest, 
over organized anywhere. There is not a nobly ambitious poor 
boy in the land w^ho should not feel that Garfield's election 
would be the pledge of another century of unlimited openings 
and chances for youth of like poverty and hard fortune. And 
so long as poor American boys may feel that the highest of 
earthly offices is attainable by such methods as Garfield has fol- 
lowed, so long the boldest of all experiments in government 
will continue to baffle all the evil predictions of its enemies, 
and to surpass in its beneficence the most glowing dreams of 
its friends. 



PRESIDENT GAEFIELD. 

Ox the second of Xovember, 1880, James A. Garfield was 
elected President of the United States. For two months pre- 
ceding the election, the country was full of popular excite- 
ment which violent partisan strife is wont to awaken. The 
worst instance of partisanship was an attempt to defeat the 
Republican candidate by the use of a letter purporting to have been 
written at a recent date by General Garfield to an obscure person 
in Lynn, Mass., on the subject of Chinese cheap labor. General 
Garfield immediately branded the letter as a miserable forgery, and 
his friends proceeded to '^ hunt the rascal" down who concocted it. 
But so wide had been the distribution of the letter through the press 
and by circular, and so clever was the forgery, that much damage 
to the Republican cause was done before any remedy could be 
applied. General Garfield rose easily above this and all calum- 
nies, and the victory of the party was complete. 

The inauguration took place in the presence of a great and 
enthusiastic multitude. One of the homely incidents of the 
occasion was the hearty kiss with which, before the people, the 
President received the congratulations and salutations of his aged 
mother and devoted wife. Mrs. Garfield is the first mother who 
has had the honor of witnessing the Inauguration of her son. 
She little suspected the tragedy so soon to be enacted. 

This public mark of honest love for those whose happiness he 
had cherished through life was so unconventional as to be worthy 
of record if only as an exhibition of the true Republican simplicity 
of the new occupants of the White House. 

Soon after the Inauguration the question of civil appoint- 
ments arose and the whole subject of Civil Service reform was 
laid open. The first serious break in the Republican ranks 



334 THE LIFE OF PRESIDENT GAEFIELD. 

occurred over the appointment of Collector for the Port of New 
York. The President's choice fell to State Senator Wm. H. 
Robertson. Senator Roscoe Conkling of New York opposed the 
appointment of Robertson on personal grounds, and demanded 
that the President should observe the courtesy usual in such 
cases and withdraw the nomination. Because the President did 
not withdraw the nomination for reasons sufficient to himself and 
his Cabinet, the two New York Senators, Conkling and Piatt, sent 
in their resignations to the President of the Senate and to the 
Governor of the State of New York. 

Immediately upon their withdrawal, the Senate confirmed 
Senator Robertson, and after the transaction of other business of 
minor importance adjourned. The great Empire State was now, 
through the foolish pique of its senior Senator, without a repre- 
sentative in the United States Senate. A contest at once began 
in the New York Legislature. The question was whether 
Conkling and Piatt should be re-elected and their course thus 
vindicated, or new members sent in their stead. The discussion 
which ensued was so protracted and so bitter as to disgust sober- 
minded people throughout the nation. Meantime the President 
established himself and his family at Elberon, N. J., for summer 
rest and quiet. It was on Saturday, July 2, 1881, when he was 
about to rejoin his wife for a brief tour in New England that he 
was shot by Charles Guiteau in the Washington depot of the 
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. The full and graphic account of 
the deed and the wonderful effect produced on the country and 
the world is taken in the following extracts from contemporary 
newspapers. At this moment he became 

THE NATION'S HERO. 

The appalling intelligence came from Washington that President Garfield was 
assassinated and was dead. Later dispatches, however, modified this startling 
news by the announcement that the President, while dangerously wounded, was 
still living, and that there was a slight hope of his recovery. 

Briefly told, the story of the tragedy is as follows: President Garfield and Sec- 
retary Blaine drove from the Executive Mansion, about 9 o'clock in the morning, 
to the depot of the Baltimore and Potemac Railroad, where the President was to 



THE LIFE OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD. 235 

join other members of his Cabinet and proceed on a trip to New Tork and New 
England. As he was walking through the passenger-rooms, arm in arm with 
Mr. Blaine, two pistol shots were fired in quick succession from behind, and the 
President sank to the floor, bleeding profusely. The assassin was instantly 
seized, and proved to be Charles J. Guiteau, a pettifogging lawyer, who had been 
an unsuccessful applicant for office under the Government, and who had led a 
precarious existence in several of the large cities of the country. 

The wounded President was conveyed to the offices of the railroad on the 
second floor of the depot building. Several physicians were soon in attendance, 
and after an hour had elapsed it was decided to remove him to the Executive 
Mansion, where he was made as comfortable as possible. His mind remained 
perfectly clear all day, notwithstanding the desperate nature of his injuries, and 
when his wife, who had been summoned from Long Branch, arrived at his bed- 
side, he was able to converse with and encoiiraffe her. 

During the afternoon the physicians expressed little hope of the President's 
recovery, but late in the evening their bulletins were more favorable. 

* * * Before leaving the depot the President manifested some anxiety 
about the efi"ect of the intelligence of his wound upon Mrs. Garfield, and, turning 
to Colonel Rockwell, dictated to him the following dispatch to be sent to Mrs. 
Garfield at Long Branch: 

Jlrs. Garfield, Elberon, X. J. : 

The President wishes me to say to you from him that he has been seriously 
hurt— how seriously he cannot yet say. "He is himself, and hopes you will come 
to him soon. He sends his love to you. 

A. F. Rockwell. 
** ****** 

The following letter was taken from the prisoner's pocket at police headquar- 
ters, showing conclusively his intention to kill the President: 

JtrLY 2, 1881. 
To the White House : 

The Pi-esident's tragic death was a sad necessity, but it will unite the Repub- 
lican Partv and save the Republic. Life is a flimsy dream, and it matters little 
when one'goes. A human life is of small value. During the war thousands of 
brave bovs went down without a tear. I presume the President was a Christian 
and that he will be happier in Paradise than here. It will be no worse for Mrs. 
Garfield, dear soul, to part with her husband this way than by natural death. 
He is liable to go at any time any way. I had no ill-will toward the President. 
His death was a political necessirv. "I am a lawyer, a theologian, and a poli- 
tician. I am a Stalwart of the Stalwarts. I was with Gen. Grant and the rest of 
our men in New York during the canvass. I have some papers for the press, 
which I shall leave with Byron Andrews and his co-jonmalists at No. 1,420 New 
York avenue, where the reporters can see them. I am going to the jail. 

Charles Gctteau. 

Mr. Andrews, to whom allusion is made in the foregoing letter, was the Wash- 
ington correspondent of the Chicago Inter- Ocean. Upon learning of the shoot- 
ing, and the allusion made to him in the prisoner's papers. Mr. Andrews repaired 
to police headquarters and made a sworn statement to the effect that he cc. or 
heard of nor met Guiteau until he saw him under arrest to-day. The prisonei's 
statement, addressed to Mr. Andrews, was retained by the police author:! its. 
Among the papers was the following letter to Gen. Sherman : 



236 THE LIFE OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD. 

To Gen. Sherman: 

I have just shot the President. I shot him several times, as I wished him to 
go as easily as possible. His death was a political necessity. I am a lawyer, a 
theologian, and politician. I am a Stalwart of the Stalwarts. I was with Gen. 
Grant and the rest of our men in New York during the canvass. I am going to 
jail. Please order out your troops and take possession of the jail at once. 

Charles Guiteait. 

The following address was upon the letter : " Please deliver at once to Gen. 
Sherman or his first assistant in charge of the War Department." 

The following announcement was made at 2 a. m., July 3, by the President's 
physician: "The improvement in the President's condition, which began be- 
tween 8 and 9 o'clock to-night, has steadily continued, and his respiration and 
temperature are now, at 2 o'clock, nonnal. His pulse has further fallen to 120." 

The President continued to improve and rested comfortably. The feeling at 
the White House has now changed from despondency to buoyant hope. Doctor 
Bliss stated that, while the patient's condition was yet very critical, he enter- 
tained some hope that he might pull through. The chances, however, were still 
against him. He relied upon the President's strong constitution to assist him 
materially. The President maintained the same composure and self-possession 
that characterized him all day. His demeanor was something remarkable. He 
was by far the lightest-hearted person in the White House. To Dr. Bliss, upon 
being informed that he had one chance of life, and only one, he laughingly 
replied : " We will take that one chance, Doctor, and make good use of it." Mrs. 
Garfield behaved admirably. She displayed a strength of character wholly unex- 
pected by everybody. She exercised a self-control that elicited the encomiums 
of all by whom she was surrounded. After her private interview with her hus- 
band, she summoned Dr. Bliss to a private apartment, and there had a confer- 
ence of half an hour with him. At the very start, she told him that she wished 
to hear nothing but the truth respecting her husband's condition; that she was 
prepared for the worst, and knowing that the inevitable must occur, she, like the 
President, was prepared in a Christian spirit to submit to the will of God, and 
bear whatever might occur with all the fortitude and resignation at her com- 
mand. Dr. Bliss then detailed the President's symptoms, and entered into a full 
history of the case from the moment the President came under his treatment, 
which was within 10 minutes of the shooting. Mrs. Garfield listened calmly. 
There was not a tear in her eye. In speaking of her conduct during the inter- 
view, Dr. Bliss enthusiastically said: "If there ever was a true heroine, Mrs. 
Garfield has proved herself one of the noblest, in romance or reality." 

Secretary Blaine left the White House at a late hour, quite overcome after the 
terrible events of the day. He said if the nearest member of his family had been 
stricken down he could not have been more shocked. "I have known Gen. 
Garfield for 19 years. We have been as close and intimate in our social relations 
as any two men could have been. We drove do\vii to the depot together. I 
never saw 'him more hilarious. Leaving all personal considerations out of the 
question, I believe that Gen. Garfield's death at this juncture will be a public 
calamity. From what the doctors tell me, I now hope for the best." 



THE LIFE OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD. 237 

DETAILS OF THE CRIME. 

United States District Attorney Corkhill, of Washington, furnished the fol- 
lowing statement for publication : 

The interest felt by the public in the details of the assassination, and the 
many stories published, justify me in stating that the following is a correct and 
accurate statement concerning the points to which reference is made : 

The assassin, Charles Guiteau, came to Washington City on Sunday evening, 
March 6, and stopped at the Ebbitt House, remaining only one day. He then 
secured a room in another part of the city, and has boarded and roomed at vari- 
ous places, the full details of which I have. On Wednesday, May 13, the assas' 
6in determined to murder the President. He had neither money nor pistol at 
the time. About the last of May he went into O'Meara's store, comer of Fif- 
teenth and F streets, in this city, and examined some pistols, asking for the 
largest caliber. He was shown two similar in caliber and only different in the 
price. On Wednesday, June 8, he purchased the pistol which he used, for which 
he paid $10, having in the meantime borrowed $15 of a gentleman in this city on 
the plea that he wanted to pay his board bill. On the same evening, about 7 
o'clock, he took the pistol and went to the foot of Seventeenth street and prac- 
ticed tiring at a board, firing ten shots. He then returned to his boarding-house 
and wiped the pistol dry and wrapped it in his coat and waited his opportunity. 

On Sunday morning, June 12, he was sitting in Lafayette park and saw the 
President leave for the Christian church, on Vermont avenue, and he at once 
returned to his room, obtained his pistol, put it in his hip pocket, and followed 
the President to church. He entered the church, but found that he could not 
kiU him there without danger of killing some one else. He noticed that the 
President sat near a window. After church he made an examination of the win- 
dow and found he could reach it without any trouble, and that from this point 
he could shoot the President through the head without killing any one else. The 
following Wednesday he went to the church, examined the location and the 
window, and became satisfied he could accomplish bis purpose, and he deter- 
mined therefore to make the attempt at the church on the following Sunday. 
He learned from the papers that the President would leave the city on Saturday, 
June 18, with Mrs. Garfield for Long Branch. He therefore determined to meet 
him at the depot. He left his boarding place about 5 o'clock on Saturday morn- 
ing, Jane 18, and went down to the river at the foot of Seventeenth street and 
fired five shots to practice his aim and be certain his pistol was in good order. 
He then went to the depot, and was in the ladies' waiting-room of the depot 
with the pistol ready when the President's party entered. He says Mrs. Garfield 
looked so weak and frail that he had not the heart to shoot the President in her 
presence, and as he knew he would have another opportunity he left the depot. 
He had previously engaged a carriage to take him To the jail. On Wednesday 
evening the President and his son, and, I think. United States Marshal Henry, 
went out for a ride. The assassin took his pistol and followed them, and watched 
thorn for some time in hopes the carriage would stop ; but no opportunity was 
given. On Friday evening, July 1, he was sitting on the seat in the park oppo- 
site the White House, when he saw the President come out alone. He followed 



238 THE LIFE OF PRESIDEI^^T GARFIELD. 

him down the avenue to Fifteenth street, and then kept on the opposite side of 
the street up Fifteenth street until the President entered the residence of Secre- 
tary Blaine. He watched at the comer of Mr. Morton's late residence, on the 
comer of Fifteenth and H streets, for some time, and then, afraid he would at- 
tract attention, he went into the alley in the rear of Mr. Morton's residence, ex- 
amined his pistol and waited. The President and Secretary Blaine came out 
together, and he followed them over to the gate of the White House, but could 
get no opportunity to use his weapon. 

On the morning of Saturday, July 2, he breakfasted at the Riggs House about 
7 o'clock. He then walked up into the park and sat there for an hour. He then 
took a one-horse avenue car and rode to Sixth street ; got out and went into the 
depot and loitered around there ; had his shoes blacked, engaged a hackman for 
$2 to take him to the jail, went into the water-closet and took his pistol out of 
his hip pocket and tinwrapped the paper from around it, which he had put there 
for the purpose of preventing the perspiration from the body dampening the 
powder ; examined the pistol carefully, tried the trigger, and then returned and 
took a seat in the ladies' waiting-room, and as soon as the President entered 
advanced behind him and fired two shots. 

These facts, I think, can be relied upon as accurate, and I give them to the 
public to contradict certain false rumors in connection with the most atrocious 
of atrocious crimes. 

AT THE PRESIDENT'S HOME. 

The news from Mentor was : Mentor is stunned. Its people are paralyzed. 
They have shut themselves in their homes. Never has such a blow been received. 
"Lincoln's death we felt to be more especially a national loss," said a white- 
haired farmer, the tears coursing their way down his cheek. "In this we see 
not only a loss to this Nation, but they have taken our friend, our brother, they 
have violated the sanctity of our hearth-stones." The news was received at 11 
A. M., but was not credited. When substantiated it spread like wildfire, and 
from all parts of the surrounding country farmers hurried to Mentor. The news 
that President Garfield had been fatally shot was brought to the home by Dr. 
Robeson, his old and life-long friend, about 10 : 30 A. m. It was not believed, 
and it was not until other telegrams were received that the members of the 
family of Mr. Rudolph, Mrs. Garfield's father, could be made to give credence to 
the news. When the President's condition no longer admitted of doubt, old Mr. 
Rudolph, who had tried to hide his emotion and anxiety, completely broke down 
and cried like a child. His son and daughter-in-law were also very much 
aff"ected. 

As the news became more generally kno^vn neighbors and friends came to 
the home anxiously inquiring for additional news, and showing by every human 
manifestation their deep and heartfelt sorrow. At noon Irwin and Abram Gar- 
field, two sons, respectively 11 and 9 years old. arrived from the East, and when 
the correspondent reached the home of the President they were playing about 
the lawm in happy ignorance of the terrible news concerning their father. " We 
have not said a word to them," said Mr. Rudolph, "because we hoped that it 
may not be trae, and now that it is true we almost fear to tell them." 



THE LIFE OF PRESIDEi^-T GARFIELD. 239 

MR. GLADSTONE WRITES TO MRS. GARFIELD. 

Secretary Blaine received from Minister LoweU at London the foUowinff note 
written to Mrs. Garfield by Mr Gladstone : 

ZuhnTn?7J''n ^y}^^'^' to convey to you the assuran'ces of my Swn fSn-s 

comparable, and I venture to say only second, to the s^ron- emotions of th^ 
ereat Nation of which he is the appointed head IndividuX'l have S me W 
Hi*hK.^-^^^' ^ad my fuU share in the sentiments wShtveTosseL^d thf 
S i tn Stit"?; f?^^y ^^''^ ^^^^ prompted and quickened largely by what I ven- 
Ifnn hpK.±?i,?? ^''^' S^T'"'^ ^^?^^ «f harmony and mutual respecTand affec- 
tion between the two countries and of a relationship which from year to vear 
becomes more and more a practical bond of union between us but they have So 
I'Sy^r^ V IhT '^'^''^^^ f''^"^ ^ ^«^^iaJ admiration of the siSheroiim 
lost hP ppZhv '^f ^ ^^"'•^'J?^ '^"^^'* ^^ the President, for we have nS yet wholK 
t h d? Tu^fZ l^PP^eciating such an example of Christian faith and manly for^ 
t iw .This exemplary picture has been made complete by your own contribu- 

In reply to this Secretary Blaine telegraphed as foUows : 

Lowell, Minister, London. Washington, July 22, 1881. 

hpwn^jo ^^i? ?''^'''^ ^""i^- Garfield the note of Mr Gladstone. I am requested bv 
her to say that among the many thousand manifestations of interest and pv 
Kfhirfth^ Bympathy which have reached her nonrhas more deeply toucheli" 
her heart than the kind words of Mr. Gladstone. His own solicitude and ron 
dolence are received with gratitude. But far beyond this she reco-iiizes thSt 
Mr. Gladstone rightftilly speaks for the people of the British ifKslhsP 
l^^frHl'' ^^'^ National and personal affliction has been as quick and g]Lce?l 

^^ Blaine, Secretary. 

COMMENT ON THE ASSASSINATION. 

(From New York Times, July S, 1881.) 
_ In the crime which was committed at Washington yesterday there is the very 
irony of fate. Considering his origin and the circumstances of his youth, no 
man has passed a career more remarkable or attained a dignity more striking 
than that of President Garfield. Beginning life the son of an almost penniless 
widow, forced to struggle as few men must for the bare maintenance of an 
eqiiality with his fellow-men, he has risen step by step to one of themosthonor- 
able positions offered by the government of any nation. It was his fortune to 
fall upon a time when great opportunities awaited great qualities, and to all 
occasions he presented qualities not unworthy of them. He entered manhood 



240 THE LIFE OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD. 

as the political contest with slavery approached its crisis, and he threw all the 
energies of a strong nature on the side of freedom. From the field of discussion 
and the ballot the conflict with slavery was taken to the field of war, and without 
hesitation, with absolute devotion, with a courage which knew no fear, he 
entered on this new and terrible task. In all the tests of fitness for the citizen- 
ship of a free Republic to which he was subjected he won high distinction, until 
at last his country called him to the greatest office within its gift. And this 
President, to whom Americans had pointed proudly and justly as a splendid 
example of what our country and its cherished principles were able to do for 
manhood— simple manhood, unfavored of fortune and unaided by any inheritance 
of title or precedence— is shot down without a moment's warning by an assassin 
whose hatred was directed not to the man but to the President, 

The whole country is bowed with deep grief and indignation at this event. 
It is«inevitable that it should be. There are few men who enjoy, and none who 
deserve to enjoy, the name of American citizen to whom this crime does not 
bring a sense of personal sorrow and a profound feeling of patriotic humiliation. 
Whatever may have been the criticisms which they have passed upon the Presi- 
dent, all American citizens must feel the " deep damnation " of this attempted 
" taking oflE." He was an obscure son of the Republic who had brought to its 
most distinguished post gifts of mind and character which conferred credit on 
the office, and almost at the outset of his term his life is assailed by a wretch 
who represents as distinctly the evU in our system as President Garfield repre- 
sents the good. For, though the murderer was obviously of disordered mind, it 
is impossible to ignore the causes which led immediately to this act— which 
directed his ill-regulated will to its final aim. He was a disappointed office- 
seeker, and he linked the bitterness of his personal disappointment with the 
passionate animosity of a faction. His resentment was inflamed and intensified 
by the assaults upon the President which have been common in too many circles 
for the past few months. Certainly, we are far from holding any party or any 
section of a party responsible for this murderous act, but we believe it our duty 
to point out that the act was an exaggerated expresssion of a sentiment of narrow 
and bitter hatred which has been only two freely indulged. It is not too much 
to say, in the first place, that if Mr. Garfield had not been the chief of a service 
in which offices are held out as prizes to men of much the same merit and much 
the same career as this murderer he would not have been exposed to this attack. 
And while this is beyond dispute, it is also probable that the murderer's mad 
spite would not have been " screwed to the sticking point " if it had not been 
stirred by the license that has prevailed in certain quarters with reference to the 
President. The event, therefore, is one which may and ought to convey a lesson, 
which should teach us the folly and the wrong of the msane pursuit of office 
which our methods of public employment invite, which should show us the 
tlanser and disgrace of the unbridled political passion aroused by these methods. 
In a certain sense the act of Guiteau was au accident, for it was entirely out of 
the range of any ordinary motives, but it is not inexplicable ; it is clearly of 
those accidents which bring more vividly to the mind the forces that create 
them. 



THE LIFE OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD. 241 

GEN. GRANT AND GUITEAU. 

Gen. Grant was entertaining Commodore Garrison and several other distin- 
gnished guests wlien a correspondent called on him last evening. He excused 
himfeelf to his company, and courteously granted the following interview : 

" I have just recalled to my mind," he said, " the fact that I once knew this 
man who is said to have done the dastardly deed which has so shocked the 
Nation. My son, Col. Fred. Grant, had become acquainted with him in Chicago. 
While I was at the Fifth-Avenue Hotel, just after the close of the Hayes campaign, 
this man Guiteau stopped there, too. He said he was in expectation of marrying a 
rich lady, worth somewhere, as I recollect, in the neighborhood of a million of 
dollars. He would be in position, therefore, to support the dignity of the 
United States Government at a foreign court, and he desired to be appointed 
Minister to Austria. He expected to have his application for the appointment 
indorsed by myself, among others. He thought he had claims on the Administra- 
tion because he had made speeches during the campaign, and he had allowed 
himself to run away with the notion that his services had been of vital impor- 
tance to the Republican Party. He sent his card frequently to my room with a 
request for an interview, but I refused to receive him. My son had described him 
to me as an imreliable bore, and had cautioned me to have nothing to do with 
him, and my refusal to see him was as much because of what my son knew of 
him as because of my own impression against him. He forced himself into my 
room, however, one evening, in the rudest possible way. He first sent the col- 
ored porter to my room with his card, and when the porter had returned with my 
answer that I would not see Mm, another tap was heard at the door. I supposed 
that it was a messenger with another card, and bade the man at the door to ' come 
in.' To my surprise this man marched in. Placing on my table his petition for 
the appointment he desired, he said that he wanted me to sign it. I refused 
peremptorily, possibly rudely, to do it, and he quitted the room." 

"Now, General, as to your view of the calamity that has befallen the Nation." 

"I am so staggered by the occurrence," replied the General, "that I can 
scarcely be said to have any view. It is only another proof that there are at 
large persons in the community who are liable at any moment to allow them- 
selves to become possessed of the idea that their mission is to redress some 
fancied public wrong by sacrificing a life. They are thought to be brainless until 
they startle the community with some such terrible crime as this." 

GEN. GARFIELD'S FATALISM. 

Those who are most familiar with Gen Garfield say that for many years he 
cherished the belief that he would not live to be older than his father was, and 
that he would die in some sudden and violent manner. His friends, with all 
their persuasion, were not able to make him dismiss this thoughi. He would 
say, in answer to their claims that such a belief was foolish : "It seems to me 
as foolish as it does to you. I do not know why it haunts me. Indeed, it is a 
thing that is wholly involuntary on my part, and when I try the hardest not to 
think of it it haunts me most. It comes to me sometimes in the night, when all 

( 



242 THE LIFE OF PRESIDEJ^T GARFIELD. 

is quiet. I think of my father and how he died in the strength of his manhood 
and left my mother to care for a large family of children, and how I have always 
been without his assistance and advice, and then I feel it so strong upon me 
that the vision is in the form of a warning that T cannot treat lightly." For 
many years he believed that he should some time fall between cars or be killed 
in some way while traveling. When he reached the age of his father at death 
and passed that point safely, he seemed to forget the idea that had given him so 
much trouble. He is now 49, nearly five years older than his father when he 
died. It is said by those who knew the General best that he was ever to a 
greater or less degree a believer in fatalism. He was a man who invariably had 
the strongest impressions, and it is believed that it was an impression that pre- 
vailed wi th him for many years that he would be President some time. He never 
sought the office and never intended to do so. The Times'' correspondent well 
remembers to have heard him discuss the very matter at dinner. He said: 
"The American people are very much like one giant human being. The com- 
bined inteUect generally acts like the intellect of a single man when it gets 
ready to act. When the giant wants any man whom he has chosen to work for 
him, he knows just how to let him know it. If a man offers his services, the 
giant very often rejects them. It is like a maiden asking a man to marry her. 
No woman is so handsome and witty and accomplished that she can afford to 
do this. Ten chances in the dozen, the man will say, if not to the woman her- 
self, at least to himself, ' I was about to ask you, but I think you are just a little 
too willing ; I believe I'd rather not.' The American people like to discover a 
man. Then they can claim him as their own by an old and established usage. 
They will discover him sooner or later, if there is anything in him worth discov- 
ering. I have more confidence in the judgment of the united intellect of the 
American people than in anything else in the world. Great men and orators 
may move and modify it, and knaves and charlatans may pervert it, but, sooner 
or later, the true conclusion will be reached, and right and justice will 
triumph." 



The result hoped for by the assassin in removing the President 
as an obstacle to the purposes of the section of the Republican 
party known as " Stalwart " was defeated by the hand of Provi- 
dence. The Mends of the President succeeded in electing 
Elbridge G. Lapham and Warner Miller, to take the place of the 
New York Senators who had resigned, and the power and name 
of '• Stalwart " were relegated among the things of the past. But 
the great blessings which flowed from that wound were far-reach- 
ing. People North and South, East and West, of every shade 
of political opinion and religious belief were united, as if by 



THE LIFE OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD. 243 

magic, in an overwhelming flood of sympathy for the fallen hero, 
and detestation for the crazy fiend who shot him. The political 
necessity which Guiteau sought to satisfy was promoted far more 
widely and surely than he dreamed. Besides rewelding Repub- 
licans, he succeeded in uniting Democrats with Republicans and 
making this again one country in all essential points. The 
earnest prayers of good people ascended constantly to the throne 
of Grace that their heroic President might live. From the day 
after the shooting hope revived in the hearts of the people, and 
the nation's Patient grew slowly and steadily stronger. Daily 
bulletins as to the state of his pulse, temperature and respiration 
were as eagerly watched in every home, grand and lowly, as 
though he were the dearest member of the household. Surely 
"To Koivov avvdei,^' ''a common interest binds" the hearts of the 
people to-day. 



SEPTEMBER 19, 1881." 



The President made a noble struggle for life. The Nation 
prayed in concert that he might live. But God willed that he 
should die. On the nineteenth of September at thirty-five min- 
utes past ten, his soul passed quietly but suddenly from the 
midst of his anxious weary watchers into eternity. 

Again we quote from the ever watchful, ever faithful daily 
press, whose reports on the succeeding day were draped in black, 
and whose voice of mourning went sobbing through the land. 

THE LONG SUFFERING ENDED. 

President Garfield is dead. His death was unexpected, no previous condi- 
tions having given warning of immediate dissolution. The Cabinet had with- 
drawn last night, and the physicians had retired. A severe pain in the heart 
was followed almost immediately by death, which took place at 10:3.5 p. m. 

In the morning he was attacked by a severe chill which greatly weakened 
him. Toward noon, however, he rallied, and* throughout the afternoon he 



244 THE LIFE OF PRESIDEXT GARFIELD. 

rested and plept. During the flay he called for a looking-glass, and having 
gazed into it, observed that it was strange that he could look so bright and be 
80 weak. 

Shortly before 10 o'clock last night Dr. Bliss asked the President if he felt 
uncomfortable anywhere, and he answered " Not at all." The President then 
fell asleep, and Dr. Bliss withdrew. About fifteen minutes after 10 o'clock the 
President placed his hand near his heart and said he was suffering great pain. 
Dr. Bliss returned immediately and found the President unconscious. The 
pulse and the action of the heart were almost imperceptible. Dr. Bliss said that 
the President was dying. The President remained in a dying condition for 
about twenty minutes, when life was declared to be extinct. 

The sad news of the President's death spread rapidly throughout the country, 
and caused a profound sensation. Bells were tolled, and preparations were 
made to drape the public buildings. 

The public horror is portrayed in these lines: 

A wasp flew out upon our fairest son, 

And stung him to the quick with poisoned shaft, 

The while he chatted carelessly and laughed, 

And knew not of the fateful mischief done. 

And so this life, amid our love begun, 

Envenomed by the insect's hellish craft. 

Was drunk by Death in one long feverish draught. 

And he was lost— our precious, priceless one 1 

Oh, mystery of blind, remorseless fate ! 

Oh, cruel end of a most causeless hate 1 

That life so mean should murder life so great I 

What is there left to us who think and feel, 

Who have no remedy, and no appeal. 

But damn the wasp and crush him under heel ? 

J. G. Holland. 

This the sad story : Late in August, despair dispelled hope. 
On the seventh of September, the physicians concluded to 
make a tinal effort to save him. All other means having failed, 
and hope being abandoned, they decided to try what change 
of air would accomplish for the patient sufferer. It seemed to 
the President as though it hardly paid to continue the struggle, 
but so great was his love for his country and those around him 
that he decided to try again. 

For a few days he rallied by the supreme effort of his will, and 
encouraging bulletins were sent forth to the world. With 
marvellous celerity tracks were laid from the White House to the 
depot, and from the Elberon, New Jersey, depot to the cottage of 



THE LIFE OF PRESIDENT GAEFIELD. 



245 



Mr. Chas. P. Francklyn, whither he was to be taken. The history 
of his removal and the tears of sympathy and yearning devotion 
and love towards the sick man that were exhibited along the 
route by rich and poor, merchant and laborer, will ever remain 
fresh and green in the memory of the time. 

But, alas, " before noon on Saturday, September 17, a severe 
chill set in, lasting for fully half an hour. Slight evidences of a 
chill had been discovered the preceding night, but the physicians 
had been able to keep it under control. The attack of the chills 
was followed later by profuse perspiration and high fever. To- 
ward night the patient felt slightly relieved. In the evening of 
the following day, Sunday, September 18, a chill lasting for 
fifteen minutes excited the gravest apprehensions among the 
President's attendants. The patient suffered severely from its 
effects. Though the patient felt relieved a few hours later, the 
physicians were of the opinion that the situation was very 
critical." The fatal stroke could not be stayed, and the brave 
sufferer succumbed on the nineteenth. 



As a record of the flickering of the candle of life in our beloved 
President from the first to the last we quote the following table : 







PULSE 


1 
i 


TEMPERATUEE. 


RESPIRATION. 


DATE. 






1 
















A. M. 


M. 


P.M. i 


A. M. 


M. 


p. M. 


A. M. 


M. 


p. M. 


July 3 






120 






100 






20 


July 4 


108 


iio 


126 


■99!4 


i66" 


101.9 


i9 


24 


24 


July 5 


114 


110 


106 


100.5 


101 


100.9 


»4 


24 


24 


July 6 


98 


100 


104 


98.9 


99.7 


100.6 


23 


23 


23 


July 7 


94 


100 


106 


99.1 


100.8 


100.2 


23 


23 


23 


July 8 


96 


108 


103 


99.2 


101.4 


101.3 


23 


24 


24 


July 9 


100 


104 


108 1 


99.4 


101.2 


101.9 


24 


22 


24 


July 10 


106 


102 


108 


100 


100.5 


101.9 


23 


22 


24 


July 11 


98 


106 


108 


99.2 


99.8 


102.8 


22 


24 


24 


July 12 


96 


100 


104 


99.6 


100.8 


102.4 


22 


24 


24 


July 13 


90 


94 


100 


98.5 


100.6 


101.6 


20 


22 


24 


July 14 


90 


M 


98 


99.8 


98.5 


101 


22 


22 


23 


July 15 


90 


94 


98 


98.5 


98.5 


100.4 


18 


18 


20 


July 16 


90 


94 


98 


98.5 


98.4 


100.2 


18 


18 


19 


July 17 


90 


94 


98 


98.4 


98.5 


100.2 


18 


18 


20 


July 18 


88 


98 


102 


98.4 


98.5 


100.7 


18 


18 


21 


July 19 


90 


92 


96 


98.5 


98.5 


99.8 


18 


19 


19 



346 



THE LIFE OF PRESIDENT aARFIELD. 



DATE. 


PULSE. 


TEMPERATURE. 


RESPIRATION. 


A. M. 


M. 


p. M. 


A. M. 


M. 


P. M. 


A. M. 


u. 


P.M. 


July 20 
July 21 
July 22 
July 23 
July 24 


86 


98 


98 


98.4 


98.4 


99.6 


18 


18 


19 


88 


98 


96 


98.4 


95.4 


99.9 


18 


19 


19 


88 


82 


98 


98.4 


98.4 


100.2 


17 


18 


19 


92 


125 


118 


97.4 


104 


101.7 


19 


26 


25 


98 


118 


104 


98.4 


99.8 


99.2 


18 


24 


23 


July 25 
July 26 


96 


104 


110 


98.4 


98.4 


101.8 


18 


20 


24 


102 


106 


104 


98.4 


98.4 


100.7 


18 


19 


22 


July 27 


94 


90 


95 


98.4 


98.4 


98.5 


18 


18 


20 


July 28 


92 


94 


104 


98.4 


98.5 


100.5 


18 


18 


20 


July 29 


92 


98 


98 


98.4 


98.4 


100 


18 


19 


20 


July 30 


93 


98 


104 


98.5 


98.5 


100 


18 


20 


20 


July 31 


94 


100 


104 


98.4 


98.5 


90 


18 


19 


20 


Aug. 1 


94 


100 


104 


98.4 


98.4 


99.5 


18 


19 


20 


Aug. 2 


94 


99 


104 


98.4 


98.4 


100 


18 


19 


20 


Aug. 3 


96 


100 


102 


98.4 


98.4 


99.4 


18 


19 


19 


Aug. 4 


90 


96 


102 


98.4 


98.4 


100.2 


18 


18 


19 


Aug. 5 
Aug. 6 

Aug, 7 
Aug. 8 


88 


98 


102 


98.4 


98.4 


100.4 


18 


18 


19 


92 


100 


103 


98.4 


98.5 


101.8 


18 


19 


19 


96 


104 


104 


98.7 


100 


101.2 


18 


20 


20 


94 


104 


108 


93.4 


100.2 


101.9 


18 


20 


19 


Aug. 9 


98 


104 


106 


99.8 


99.7 


101.9 


19 


19 


19 


Aug. 10 


104 


110 


108 


98.5 


98.6 


101 


19 


19 


19 


Aui. 11 


100 


102 


108 


98.6 


98.6 


101.2 


19 


19 


19 


Aug. 12 


100 


100 


108 


98.6 


99.3 


101.2 


19 


19 


19 


Aug. 13 


104 


102 


104 


100.8 


99.2 


100.7 


19 


18 


19 


Aug. 14 


100 


96 


108 


99.8 


99.3 


100.8 


18 


18 


19 


Aug. 15 


108 


118 


130 


100.2 


99 


99.6 


20 


19 


22 


Aug. 16 


110 


114 


120 


98.6 


98.3 


98.9 


18 


18 


19 


Aug. 17 


110 


112 


112 


98.3 


9S.7 


98.8 


18 


18 


18 


Aug. 18 


104 


108 


108 


98.8 


98.4 


100 


17 


18 


18 


Aug. 19 


100 


106 


106 


98.4 


98.8 


100 


17 


17 


18 


Aui. 20 


98 


107 


110 


98.4 


98.4 


100.4 


18 


18 


19 


Aug. 21 


106 


108 


108 


93.8 


99.4 


99.2 


18 


18 


18 


Aug. 22 


104 


104 


110 


98.4 


98.4 


100.1 


18 


18 


19 


Aug. 23 


100 


104 


104 


98.4 


98.9 


99.2 


18 


18 


19 


Aug. 24 


100 


104 


108 


98.5 


99.2 


100.7 


17 


17 


19 


Aug. 25 


106 


113 


112 


98.5 


99.2 


99.8 


18 


19 


19 


Aug. 26 


108 


118 


116 


99.1 


100 


99.9 


17 


18 


18 


Aug. 27 


120 


120 


114 


98.4 


99.6 


98.9 


22 


22 


22 


Aug. 28 


100 


104 


110 


93.4 


99.5 


99.7 


17 


18 


20 


Aug. 29 


100 


106 


110 


98.5 


98.6 


100.5 


17 


18 


18 


Aug. 30 


102 


116 


109 


98.5 


98.9 


99.5 


18 


18 


18 


Aug. 31 


100 


95 


109 


98.4 


98.4 


98.6 


18 


17 


18 


Sept. 1 


100 


108 


108 


98.4 


98.6 


99.4 


17 


18 


18 


Sept. 2 


100 


108 


104 


98.4 


98.7 


99.2 


17 


18 


18 


Sept. 3 


104 


104 


102 


98.6 


98.4 


99.6 


18 


18 


18 


Sept. 4 


108 


106 


110 


98.4 


98.4 


^ . 


18 


18 


18 


Sept. 5 


102 


114 


108 


99.5 


99.5 


99.8 


18 


18 


19 


Sept. 6 


118 


110 


124 






101.6 






18 


Sept. 7 


106 


114 


108 


98'.4 


98".4 


101 


18 


is 


18 


Sept. 8 


104 


94 


100 


98.7 


98.4 


99.1 


18 


17 


18 


Sept. 9 


100 


100 


100 


98.5 


98.4 


98.8 


17 


17 


18 


Sept. 10 


100 


100 


100 


99.4 


98.5 


98.7 


18 


18 


18 


Sept. 11 


104 


110 


110 


98.8 


100 


106 


19 


20 


20 


Sept. 12 


100 


106 


100 


98.4 


99.2 


98.6 


18 


20 


18 



THE LIFE OF PKESIDEKT GARFIELD. 



247 



DATE. 


PULSE. 


TEMPERATUliE. 


RESPIRATION. 


A. M. 


M. 


P. M. 


A. M. 


M. 


P.„. 


A. M. 


M. 


P. M. 


Sept. 13 
Sept. 14 
Sept. 15 
Sept. 16 
Sept. 17 
Sept. 18 
Sept. 19 


100 

100 
100 
104 
108 
102 
106 


100 
104 
102 
116 
120 
116 
104 


100 

112 1 

104 

104 

102 

102 

102 ! 


99.4 

98.4 

98.4 

98.6 

99.8 

98 

98.8 


98.8 
98.8 
98.9 
99.8 

103 

100 
98.2 


98.4 

99.2 

99.2 

98.6 

98 

98.4 

98.4 


20 
19 
20 
21 
21 
18 
22 


20 
20 
21 
21 
24 
20 
20 


20 
21 
21 
22 

18 
20 
18 



ARTHUR SWORN IJST. 

The news of the death of the President found the people heart- 
broken but ready to accept the will of God, and Vice-President 
Chester A. Arthur was immediately sworn into office at 2 o'clock 
in the morning of September 20th, by Chief Justice Brady. Busi- 
ness was not interrupted ; the wheels of the Government were not 
clogged ; and the Nation, like the family, mourned its head, but 
went forward to its work unflinchingly and without commotion. 
Thus again the strength of American institutions was tested to 
the point of snapping, but did not snap. 

Like a young giant, this Nation treads among other nations 
erect and defiant. In manners, customs, laws, and religion, it is a 
rebuke to the older nations of the world. Its youth and untried 
strength subject it to universal scepticism and sneers. But 
experience is pouring in its inexorable logic. Though often 
staggered by the heavy blow of some traitorous hand, our 
splendid giant as often straightens, shakes aloft his Apollo head, 
squares his herculean shoulders, and repels the assassin. God 
grant he may grow in wisdom and in strength I 



CHAPTEU XXII. 

THE FINAL HONORS. 

The railroad tracks, so swiftly and tenderly laid for the use 
of the train which bore the dying President to Elberon, had not 
been taken up. It was doubtless expected he could not live, and 
that the return journey would soon be made. And so within two 
short weeks, and after a brief service at Elberon, the same special 
car, suitably draped, bore the body back to Washington. Demon- 
strati(ms of sorrow and sympathy were made all along the route. 
At the Princeton depot the students of the college were ranged 
in line, and the track was strewn with flowers. At Washington 
the body was placed in state in the rotunda of the Capitol until 
Friday the 23rd. The scene presented there was in some respects 
the most remarkable that had ever been witnessed in the United 
States. People of all classes and conditions pressed side by side 
in eager procession jDast the solemn bier. Tiic colored population 
from the surrounding country was present en masse. A common 
grief obliterated all distinctions, and yet so quiet and orderly was 
this vast assemblage in the presence of a great and overwhelming 
national sorrow, that there was absolutely no disturbance. One 
sentiment of holy grief impelled and controlled the multitude. 
Funeral services, held at 3 o'clock on the 23rd, were very impos- 
ing. They were conducted by the Rev. E. D. Fowler, pastor of 
the Christian Church in Washington, of which Mr. Garfield was 
a member. The body was removed to the funeral train, escorted 
by the following procession : 

Funeral escort in column of march, under commanil of Brevet Major-General 

R. B. Ayres. 

Battalion of District of Columbia volnnteers. 

Battalion of marines. 

Battalion of foot artillery. 

Battalion of light artillery. 

Oi\'ic procession, unaev command of the Chief Marshal, Col. Robert Boyd. 



THE LIFE OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD. 



249 



Clergymen in attendance. 

Physicians who attended the late President. 

Guard of honor. 

Bearers. 

HEARSE. 

Bearers. 

Guard of honor. 

The officers of the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps in the city and not on duty 

with the troops forming the escort, in full-dress uniform, nght m front, 

on either ^ide of the hearse-the Army on the right and the Navy 

and ilarine Cori)8 on the lef t-and compose the guard of 

honor. 

Family of the late President. 

Rolatives of the late President. 

Ex-Prcsidents of the United States 

The President. 

The Cabinet Ministers. 

The Diplomatic Corps. 

The Chief-Justice and Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United 

States. 

The Senators of the United States. 

Members of the United States House of Representatives. 

Governors of States and Territories, and Commissioners of the District of 

Columbia. 

The Jud-^es of the Court of Claims, the Judiciary of the District of Columbia, 

and Judges of the United States Courts. 

The Assistant Secretaries of State, Treasury, and Interior Departments. 

The Assistant Postmasters-General. 

The Solicitor-General, and the Assistant Attorneys-General. 

Organized Societies. 

Citizens and Strangers. 

The funeral train consisted of three special Pullman palace 
coaches, and a funeral car with open sides. The entire train was 
heavily draped. Thus the mourners and the body were borne 
solemnly and quietly, amid tolling bells at every passing, to 
Cleveland, Ohio, where the principal obsequies were held and 
near which the remains were interred. The grand catafalque, 
with a canopy on four arches, was in readiness, and the coffin .vas 
ao-ain displayed to a surging multitude of people, who wished 
tiius to express their last reverential homage to the illustrious 
Ohioian. The final obsequies were performed on Monday, Sep- 
tember 26th, at 2 o'clock, and were attended by the most dis- 
tincmished men from all parts of the country, without distinc- 
tion of party, including governors of twenty States with their 



250 THE LIFE OF PEESIDENT GARFIELD. 

Staffs. All assembled witli one accord to pay a last tribute to the 
integrity, ability and noble patriotism of their murdered friend 
and chieftain. 

The exercises in Monument Square were begun at 10:30 a. m., 
and lasted until noon. The most affecting incident of the occasion 
was that when Mother Garfield approached and for the first time 
looked upon the coffin. She had been at Mentor during the sick- 
ness and death of her son. The scene is thus graphically described 
by an eyewitness : 

There was a rising on tip-toe in many parts when the bent and veiled form of 
Mother Garfield stepped from her carriage, and, leaning upon the arm of her 
grandson James, ascended the inclined plane to the floor of the catafalque, 
within which seats had been provided for the family and nearest friends. Mrs. 
Garfield followed, leaning upon the arm of her eldest eon, Harry, and was 
followed in turn by those of her intimate friends who have been constant 
attendants since her husband was shot. Last came the members of the Cabinet, 
accompanied by their wives. When seated they were hidden from view of those 
upon the outer platform by the mass of intervening floral decorations. A moment 
passed, when Mother Garfield arose and approaching the coffin, laid her hand upon 
the lid and stood for a short time in silent prayer, her companions remaining 
motionless around her. 

The following order of exercises was observed : 

GARFIELD OBSEQUIES. 

-September 26, 1881 Cleveland. 

Services at Pavilion. 

The Hon. J. P. Robinson, Presiding. 

Singing by the Cleveland Vocal Society. 

Reading of Scriptures by the Right Rev. Bishop G. T. Bedell. 

Prayer by a representative of the Methodist Episcopal Conference in session in 

Painesville. 

Singing by the Cleveland Vocal Society. 

Address by the Rev. I. Errett, of Cincinnati. 

Prayer and Benediction by the Rev. Charles S. Pomeroy. 

Services at Lake View Cemetery. 

Remarks by the Rev. J. H. Jones, Chaplain of the Forty-second Regiment. 

Singing by the Cleveland German vocal societies. 

President Garfield's favorite ode. 

Prayer and Benediction by President B. A. Hinsdale. 

The discourse delivered by the Rev. Dr. Isaac Errett, of Cin- 
cinnati, was most eloquent and yet marked by the clearest and 
strongest common sense. It was immediately copied by nearly 



THE LIFE OF PRESIDENT GAKFIELD. 251 

every newspaper in the United States, and perhaps expresses more 
nearly the common sentiment of the nation than any of the dis- 
courses of the day. We herewith give it in full, and believe it 
will be valued by readers as long as the nation continues : 

And the archers shot at Kin^ Josiah, and the king said to hie servants. Have 
me away, for I am sore wounded. 

His servants therefore took him out of that chariot and put him in the second 
chariot that he had, and thsy brought him to Jerusalem, and he died and was 
buried m one of the sepulchres of his fathers. And all Judah and Jerusalem 
mourued for Josiah. 

And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah, and all the singing men and singing women 
spake of Josiah in their lamentations to this day, and made them an ordinance in 
Israel ; and, behold, they ;ire written in the Lamentations 

wafwYit\'?i;rtV?Lw^T5heLo?f^ ""^ ^" ^°"'"^^^ according to that which 

of tS-ae^and^Jud^h^' ^^^ ^^^*' ^®^°^^ ^^^^ ^^^ written in the book of the kings 

*,/°''T^*^.^KHv''^^^°^'^'i^l^°'*<l°^ Hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and 

of wafer ^ ^^ ' *^^ ^^""^^ ^*^^ ""^ *^'"^^'^' ^""^ *^® ^*^^^® ^^^ 

The mighty man and the man of war, and the prophet, and the ancient 

ine captain of fifty, and the honorable man and the counseUor, and the cunninff 
artificer and the eloquent orator. k^^^^^j^ 

The voice said. Cry- And he said. What shall I cry? 

All flesh IS grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field. 
„^i^ ^^'^ «^^ withereth, the flower fadeth because the spirit of the Lord bloweth 
upon It. Surely the people is grass, 
forever ^^^^^ withereth, the flower fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand 

This is a time for mourning that has no parallel in the history of the world. 
Death is constantly occurring every day and every hour, and almost every minute 
some life expires, and somewhere there are broken hearts and desolate homes. 
But we have learned to accept the unavoidable, and we pause a moment and drop 
a tear, and are away again to the excitements and ambitions of life, and forget it 
all. Sometunes a life is called for that plunges a large community in mourning, 
and sometimes whole nations mourn the loss of a good king, or a wise statesman,' 
or an eminent sage, or a great philosopher, or a philanthropist, or a martyr who 
has laid his life on the altar of truth and won for himself an enviable immortality 
among the sons of men. 

But there was never a mourning in all the world like unto this mourning. I 
am not speaking extravagantly, for I am told that it is the result of calculations 
carefully made from such data as are in possession that certainly not less than 
three hundred millions of the human race share in the sadness and the lamenta- 
tions and sorrow and mourning that belong to this occasion here to-day. It is a 
chill shadow of a fearful calamity that has extended itself into every home in all 
this land, and into every heart, and that has projected itself over vast seas and 
oceans into distant lands, and awakened the sincerest and profoundest sympathy 
with us in the hearts of other nations. 

It is worth while, my friends, to pause a moment and ask, Why this is ? It is 
doubtless attributable in part to the wondrous triumphs of science and art within 
the present century, by means of which time and space have been so far conquered 
that nations once far distant and necessarily alienated from each other are broii-ht 



252 THE LIFE OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD. 

into close communication; then also the various ties of commerce and of social 
interests and of religious interests bring them into contact of fellowship that could 
not have been known in former times It is likewise unquestionably partly due 
to the fact that this Natioa of oars has grown to such wondrous might and power 
before the whole earth that sympathy with this Nation and respect for this great 
power lead to these offerings of condolence and expressions of sympathy and 
grief. 

Yet all this will by no means account for this marvellous and world-wide sym- 
pathy of which we are speaking. Yet it cannot be attributed to mere intellectual 
greatness, for there have been and there are other great men; and, acknowledging 
all that the most enthusiastic heart could claim for our beloved leader, it is but 
fair to say that there have been more eminent educators, tht?re have been greater 
soldiers, there have been more skilful and experienced and powerful legislators 
and leaders of mighty parties and political forces. There is no one department in 
which he has won eminence where the world may not point to others who 
attained higher and more intellectual greatness. It might not be considered more 
righteously^here than in many other cases, yet perhaps it is rare in the history of 
nations that any one man has combined so much of excellence in all those various 
departments, and who, as an educator and a lawyer, and a legislator, and a soldier, 
and a party chieftain and ruler, done so well, so thoroughly well, in all depart- 
ments and brought out such successful results as to inspire confidence and com- 
mand respect and approval in every path of life in which he has walked and in 
every department of public activity which he has occupied. Yet, I think, when 
we come to a proper estimate of his character, and seek after the secret of this 
world-wide sympathy and affection, we shall find it rather in the richness and 
integrity of his moral nature, and in that sincerity, and in that transparent hon- 
esty" in that trnthfuhiess that was the basis for everything of greatness to which 
we do honor to-day. 

AN ANECDOTE OF HIS YOUTH. 
I may state here what perhaps is not generally known, as an illustration of this. 
When James A. Garfield was yet a mere lad, a series of religious meetings was 
held in one of the towns of Cuyahoga County, by a minister by no means attrac- 
tive as an orator, possessing none of the graces of an orator, and marked only by 
entire sincerity, by good reasoning powers, and by earnestness in seeking to win 
souls from sin' to righteousness. The lad Garfield attended these meetings for 
many nights, and after listening to the sermons night after night, he went one 
day to the minister, and said to him: " Sir, I have been listening to your preach- 
ing night after night, and I am fuUy persuaded that if these things you say are 
true, it is the duty and the highest interest of every man of respectability, and 
especially of every young man, to accept that religion, and seek to be a man. 
B;it, really, I don't know whether this thing is true or not. I can't say that I dis- 
believe it, but I dare not say that I fully and honestly believe it. If I were sure 
that it was true I would most gladly give it my heart and my life." So, after a 
long talk, the minister preached that night on the text, " What is Truth ? " and 
proceeded to show that notwithstanding all the various and conflicting theories 
and opinions in ethical science, and notwithstanding all the various and conflict- 
ing opinions in the world, there was one assured and eternal alliance for every 
human soul in Jesus Christ : that eveiy soul was safe with Jesus Christ; that He 



THE LIFE OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD. 253 

never would mislead ; that any young man giving Him his hand and heart, and 
walking in His pathway, would not go astray, and that whatever might be the 
solution of ten thousand insoluble mysteries, at the end of all things the man who 
loved Jesus Christ and walked after the footsteps of Jesus, and realized in spirit 
and life the pure morals and the sweet piety, was safe, if safety there were in the 
imiverse of God; safe, whatever else were safe; safe, whatever else might prove 
unworthy and perish forever. And young Garfield seized upon it after due reflec- 
tion, and came forward and gave his hand to the minister in pledge of his ac- 
ceptance of the guidance of Christ for his life, and turned his back upon the sins 
of the world forever. The boy is father to the man, and that pure honesty and 
integrity, and that fearless spirit to inquire, and that brave surrender of all the 
charms of sin to convictions of duty and right, went with him from that boyhood 
throughout his life, and crowned him with the honors that were so cheerfully 
awarded to him from all hearts over this vast land. 

WHAT MADE HIM BELOVED BY ALL. 

There was another thing. He passed all the conditions of virtuous life between 
the log cabin in Cuyahoga and the White House, and in that wonderfuUyrich and 
varied experience, moving up higher to higher, he has touched every heart in all 
this land at some point or other, and he became the representative of all hearts 
and lives in this land ; not only the teacher, but the representative of all virtues, 
for he knew their wants, and he knew their condition, and he established legiti- 
mately the ties of brotherhood with every man with whom he came in contact. I 
take it that this vow, lying at the basis of his character, the rock on which his 
whole life rested, followed up by the perpetual and enduring industry that marked 
his whole career, made him at once the honest and the capable man, who invited 
and received, in every act of his life, the confidence and trust and love of all that 
learned to know him. 

There is yet one other thing that I ought to mention here. There was such an 
admirable harmony of all his powers; there was such a beautiful adjustment of 
the physical, intellectual, and moral in his being; there was such an equitable dis- 
tribution of the physical, intellectual, and moral forces that his nature looked out 
every way to get at sympathy with everything, and found about equal delight in 
all pursuits and all studies, so that he became, through his industry and honest 
ambition, really encyclopaedic. There was scarcely any single chord that you 
could touch to which he would not respond in a way that made you know that his 
hands had swept it skilfully long ago, and there was no topic you could bring be- 
fore him, there was no object that you could present to him, that you did not 
wonder at the richness and fullness of information somehow gathered, for his 
eyes were always open, and his heart was always open, and his brain was ever 
busy and equally interested in everything— the minute and the vast, the high and 
the low, in all classes and creeds of men. 

He thus gathered up that immense store and that immense variety of the most 
valuable and practical knowledge that made him a man, not in one department, 
but all around, everywhere in his whole beautiful and symmetrical life and char- 
acter. But, my friends, the solemnity of this hour forbids any further investiga- 
tion in that line, any further details of a very remarkable life, for with these de- 
tails you are familiar, or, if not, they will come before you through various chan- 
nels hereafter. 



254 THE LIFE OF PKESIDENT GARFIELD. 



THE LESSON HIS LIFE TEACHES. 

It is my duty in the presence of the dead, and iu view of all the solemnities that 
rest upon us now, in a solemn burial service, to call your attention to the great 
lesson taught you, and by which we ought to become wiser, purer, and better 
men. And I want ro say, therefore, first of all, that there comes a voice from the 
dead to this entire Nation, and not only to the people but to those in places of 
trust, to our legislators and our governors, and our military men, and our leaders 
of parties, and all classes and creeds in the Union. The great lesson to which I 
desire to call your attention can be expressed in a few words: James A. Garfield 
went through his whole public life without surrendering for a single moment his 
Christian integrity, his moral integrity, or his love for the spiritual. Coming into 
the exciting conflicts of political life with a nature as capable as any of feeling the 
force of every temptation; with temptations to unholy ambition, with unlawful 
prizes within his reach, with every inducement to surrender all his religious faith, 
and be known merely as a successful man of the world, from first to last he has 
manfully adhered to his religious convictions, and found the more praise, and 
gathers in his death all the pure inspiration of the hope of everlasting life. 

I am well aware of a feeling among political men, justly shared in, all over the 
land, by those who engage in political life, that a man cannot afford to be a poli- 
tician and a Christian ; that he must necessarily forego his obligations to God 
and be absorbed in the dififerent measures of policy that may be necessary to ena- 
ble him to achieve the desired result. Now, my friends, I call attention to this 
grand life, as teaching a lesson altogether invaluable. Just at this point I want 
you to look at that man. I v/ant you to think of him when, in his early manhood, 
he was so openly committed to Christ and the principles of the Christian religion 
that he was frequently found, among a people who allow a large liberty, occupy- 
ing a pulpit. You are within a few miles of the spot where the great congrega- 
tions gathered, when he was yet almost a boy, just emerging into manhood, week 
after week, and hung upon the words that fell from his lips with wonder, admira- 
tion, and enthusiasm. 

It was when he was known to be occupying this position that he was invited 
to become a candidate for the Ohio State Senate. It was with the full knowledge 
of all that belonged to him, in his Christian faith and his efforts to live a Christian 
life, that this was tendered him, and without any resort to any dishonorable means 
he was elected and began his legislative career. 

When the country called to arms, when the Union was in danger, and his great 
heart leaped with enthusiasm and was filled with holiest desire and ambition to 
render some ser^ice to his country, it required no surrender of the dignity and 
nobleness of his Christian life to secure to him the honors that fell upon him so 
thick and fast, and the successes that followed each other so rapidly as to make 
him the wonder of the world, though he entered upon that career wholly unac- 
quainted with military life, and could only win his way by the honesty of his pur- 
pose and the diligence and faithfulness with which he seized upon every oppor- 
tunity to accomplish the work before him. 

Follow him from that time until he was called from the service in the field, 
and the people of his district sent him to Congress, their hearts gathering about 
him without any effort on his part. They kept him there as long as he would 
Btay, and they would have kept Mm there yet if he had said eo. He remained 



THE LIFE OF PRESIDEi>rT GARFIELD. 255 

there until, by the voice of the people of this State, he was made Senator, when 
there were other bright and strong and grand names — men who were entitled to 
recognition and reward, and altogether worthy, in every way, to bear Senatorial 
honors. Yet there were such currents of admiration and sympathy and trust and 
love coming in and centering from all parts of the State that the action of the 
Legislature at Columbus was but the echo of the popular voice when, by acclama- 
tion, they gave him that place, and every other candidate gracefully retired. 

And then again when he went to Chicago to serve the interest of another ; 
when, as I knew, his own ambition was fully satisfied, and he had received that 
on which his heart was set, and looked with more than gladness to a path in life 
for which his entire education and culture had prepared him. When wearied 
out with every effort to command a majority for any candidate, the hearts of that 
great Convention turned on every side to James A. Garfield. 

In spite of himself, and against every feeling, wish and prayer of his own 
heart, this honor was crowded upon him, and the Nation responded with holy 
enthusiasm from one end of the land to the other, and in the same honorable way 
he was elected to the Chief Magistracy under circumstances which, however 
great the bitterness of p'arty conflict, caused all parties not only to acquiesce, but 
to feel proud in the consciousness that we had a Chief Magistrate of whom they 
need not be ashamed before the world, and unto whom they could safely confide 
the destinies of this mighty Nation. 

Now, gentlemen, let me say to you all, those of you occupying great places of 
trust who are here to-day, and the mass of those who are called upon to discharge 
the responsibilities of citizenship year by year, the most invaluable lesson that 
we learn from the life of our beloved departed President is that not only is it not 
incompatible with success, but it is the surest means of success, to consecrate 
heart and life to that which is true and right, and above all questions of mere 
policy, wedding the soul to truth and right and the God of truth and righteous- 
ness in holy wedlock, never to be dissolved. I feel just at this point that we 
need this lesson. 

This great, wondrous land of ours ; this mighty Nation in its marvellous 
upward career, with its ever increasing power, opening its arms to receive from 
all lands people of all languages, all religions, and all conditions, and hoping in 
the warm embrace of political brotherhood to blend them with us, to melt them 
into a common mass, needs this lesson of virtue, so that when melted and run 
over again in a new type of manhood, it will incorporate all the various nations 
of the earth in one grand brotherhood, presenting before the nations of the world 
a spectacle of freedom and strength and prosperity and power beyond anything 
before known. Let me say the permanency of the work and its continual 
enlargement must depend on our maintaining virtue as well as intelligence, and 
making dominant in all the land those principles of pure morality that Jesus 
Christ has taugbt us. Just as we cling to that w^e are safe ; and just as we forget 
and depart from that we proceed toward disaster and ruin ; and when we see 
what has been accomplished in a mighty life like this, we have an instance of the 
power of truth and right which spreads from heart to heart, and from life to life, 
and from State to State, and finally from nation to nation, until these pure prin- 
ciples reigning everywhere, God shall realize His great purpose so long ago 
expressed to us in the words of prophecy, that the kingdoms of this world are 
become the kingdoms of our God and His Christ ; so that over the dead body of 



256 THE LIFE OF PRESIDENT GAHFIELD. 

James A. Garfield may all the people join hands and swear by the eternal God 
that they will dismiss all unworthy purposes, and love and worship the true and 
the right ; and in the inspiration of the grand principles that Jesus Christ taught, 
peek to realize the grand ends to which His words of t.uth and right continually 
point us. 

I cannot prolong my remarks to any great extent. There are two or three 
tilings that I must say, however, before I close. There is a voice to the Church 
in this death that I cannot pause now to speak of particularly. 

THE LOSS HIS FAMILY SUSTAINED. 

There is a tenderer and more awful voice that speaks to the members of the 
family; to that sacred circle within which really his true life and character were 
better developed and more perfectly known than anywhere else. What words 
can tell the weight of anguish that rests upon the hearts of those who so dearly 
loved him and shared with him the sweet sanctities of his home, the pure hfe, 
the gentleness, the kindness and the manliness that pervaded all his actions, and 
made his home a charming one for its inmates and for all that shared in its hos- 
pitalities. It is of all things the saddest, that those bound to him by the tenderest 
ties of the home circle are called to yield him to the grave ; to hear that voice of 
love no more ; to behold that manly form no longer moving in the sweet circle 
of home ; to receive no more the benediction from the loving hand of the father, 
that rested upon the heads of his children and commanded the blessings of God 
ui)on them ; the dear old mother, who realizes here to-day that her four-score 
years are after all but labor and sorrow, to whom we owe, back of all I have 
spoken of, the education and training that made him what he was, and who has 
been led from that humble home in the wilderness, side by side with him, in all 
his elevation, and assured him the triumph and the glory that came to him step 
by step as he mounted up from high to higher, to receive the highest honors that 
the land could bestow upon him, left behind him, lingering on the shore, while 
he has passed over to the other side. What Avords can express the sympathy that 
is due to her, or the consolation that can strengthen her heart and give her cour- 
age to bear this bitter bereavement ? 

And the wife, who began with him in her young womanhood and has bravely 
kept step with him through all his wondrous career, and who has been not only 
his wife, but his friend and his counselor through all their succession of prosper- 
ities, and this increase of influence and power, and who, when the day of calam- 
ity came, was there, his ministering angel, his prophetess and his priestess, 
when the circumstances were such as to forbid ministrations from other hands, 
speaking to him the words of cheer which sustained him through that long fear- 
ful struggle for life, and watching over him when his dying vision rested on her 
beloved form, and sought from her eyes an answering gaze that should speak 
when words could not be spoken of a love that has never died, and that now 
must be immortal. And the children who have grown up to an age when they 
can remember all that belonged to him, left fatherless in a world like this, yet 
surrounded with a Nation's sympathy, and with a world's affection, and able to 
treasure in their hearts the grand lessons of his noble and wondrous life, may be 
assured that the eyes of the Nation are upon them, and that the hearts of the 
people go out after them. While there is much to support and encourage, it ia 



THE LIFE OF PRESIDENT GAEFIELD. 257 

still a 6ad thing, and calls for our deepest sympathy, that they have lost such a 
father and are left to make thoir way through this rough world without his guid- 
ing hand or his wise ccuusels. But that which makes this terrible to them now 
is just that which, as the years go by, will make very sweet and bright and joyous 
memories to fill the coming years. By this very loss which they deplore, and by 
nil the loving actions that bound them in blessed sympathy in the home circle, 
tlioy will live over again ten thousand times all the sweet life of the past ; and 
though dead, he will still live with them ; and though his tongue be dumb in the 
g:ave, it will speak anew to them ten thousand beautiful lessons of love and 
righteousness and truth. 

May God, in His infinite mercy, fold them in His arms and bless them as they 
need in this hour of thick darkness, and bear them safely through what remains 
of the troubles and sorrows of (heir earthly pilgrimage unto the everlasting home 
w here there shall be no more death nor crying ; neither shall there be any more 
pain, for the former things shall have forever passed away. We commit you, 
beloved friends, to the arms and the care of the Everlasting Father, who has 
promised to be the God of the widow and the Father of the fatherless in His holy 
habitation, and whose sweet promise goes with us through all the dark and 
stormy paths of life— "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee." 

I have discharged now the solemn covenant and trust reposed in me, many 
years ago, in harmony with a friendship that has never known a cloud ; a confi- 
dence that has never trembled, and a love that has never changed. Farewell, my 
friend and brother ; thou hast fought a good fight, thou hast finished thy course, 
thou hast kept thy faith : henceforth there is laid up for thee a crown of right- 
eousness, \vhich the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to thee in that day ; and 
not unto thee alone, but unto all them who love His offering. 

Dr. Errett was listened to with close and earnest attention. He 
spoke for forty minutes, and when he closed a hush for a moment 
hung over the vast audience. 

The Rev. Jabez Hall then read General Garfield's favorite 
Lyran, which was beautifully sung by the Vocal Society: 

Ho, reapers of life's harvest. 

Why stand with rusted blade 
Until the night draws round thee 

And day begins to fade? 
Why stand ye idle, waiting 

For reapers more to come? 
The golden morn is passing, 

Why sit ye idle, dumb? 

Thrust in your sharpened sickle 

And gather in the grain : 
The night is fast approaching 

And soon will come again. 
The Master calls for reapers 

And shall he call in vain? 



258 THE LIFE OF PRESIDEN-T GARFIELD. 



Shall sheaves lie there, ungathered, 
And waste upon the plain 1 

Mount up the heights of wisdom 

And crush each error low. 
Keep back no words of knowledge 

That human hearts should know. 
Be faithful to thy mission 

In service of thy Lord, 
And then a golden chaplet 

Shall be thy just reward. 



The day of the funeral was observed throughout the country as 
a day of fasting and prayer. Business of every description was 
suspended. At 2 o'olock, the hour of the funeral, bells were 
tolled in every city, town, and hamlet, from the Atlantic to the 
Pacific, from the Lakes to the Gulf. At 3 o'clock appropriate 
religious services were held with equal universality. Many of the 
sermons that were delivered were notable for the lofty patriotism 
they breathed, and the unquestioning admiration they exhibited 
for the dead President. The following extract will indicate 
the work the people universally expected of him had he lived: 

The work which President Garfield outlined for himself in his inaugural ad- 
dress, briefly summarized, was as follows : To maintain the supremacy of the 
Nation; to protect the citizenship of the negroes, so often and so bitterly assailed; 
to promote the freedom and purity of the ballot; to aid in summoning: " all the 
Constitutional powers of the Nation and of the States and all the volunteer 
forces of the people to meot the danger of illiteracy by the saving influence of 
universal education; " to d -fe-id specie payments agains^^ any new revival of pre- 
judice and ignorance, and refun i the public debt at low ■ ates of interest ; to assert 
the riirht of the United States to supervise any interoceanic canal across the 
Isthmus; to break up polygfamy in Utah by the aid of wise Congressional en ct- 
ments. and to promote reform in the Civil Service by urgirg Congress to pa-s a 
law to fix the tenure " of the minor otHces of the several executive d.'partraeuts, 
and prescribe the grounds for which removals shall be made." 

The work he thus outlined began under the favorable conditions of earnest and 
patriotic purpose on his part, an 1 the strong snnnort of public opinion. How well 
ha carried it on daring the brief period before he recnve I his cruol and fatal 
wound is fre-h in men's minds. It was commonly said that no Pre-idenf ever 
accomplished so much for the good of the coun!ry in the Krie of administrative 
work in so short a time. By ihe help of his Cabinet he reformed many serious 
abuses, broke up the Star Route conspiracy, saved over a million of dollars in 
postal expenses, settled tho problem of funding the high interest bonds over 
which Congress had pothered for months to no purpose, and settled it in such a 



THE LIFE OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD. 259 

way as to command the approbation of both parties and the admiration of finan- 
ciers on both sides of the ocean, and gave the healthful stinuihis of stron- and 
intelligent statesmanship to all >he channels of Governmental action. He waited 
S'thTs^^fh^n'^'^rKr f '"' ^-'«'«P-«°t of plans respecting aid to education 
Nat^on^?! 'r ^1^^"^'^™^"^ «f f"'-^ber safeguards against fraud and force at 
National elec ions, the treatment of the hideous disease of polygamy, the reform 
c. he evils of the spoils system in the Civil Service, the protection of the rights 
■Md interests of the Unite 1 States upon the Isthmus, and other matters of Ni- 
tional concern in which he needed the aid of legislation. He was filled with a 
lofty conception of the xXational idea-not the conception of a dreamer, thouc^h 
or of a mere maker of patriotic phrases, but of an earnest worker who bdieved a 
President was bound by the obligations of his station to labor to make the coun- 
try better for his having occupied its seat of highest honor and power -M Y 

The city of New York, in common with other cities, was for 
many days draped in black and white emblems of mcturninir. The 
draperies of some of the buildings, noticeably the City HaTl were 
especially beautiful. ' 

In Europe there were many buildings and residences decorated 
in honor of the sad event. In the business portion of the West 
End of Londo.], particularly in Regent street and Oxford street 
there was hardly a shop which did not show some sign of mourning.* 

Expressionsof grief and sympathy for the bereaved family were 

* There was a remarkable demonstration at Dr. Parker's City Temple, London 
which was crowded to overflowing, there being hundreds of people outside unl 
able to gam admittance. The pulpit was draped with crape and the stars and 
stripes blended, and with a mignificant white wreath. The service be-an with 
the anthem, "Sleep thy last sleep," followed by the dead march, "So°be thou 
faithful unto death." Prayer was offered by the Rev. Newman Hall, the burden 
of which was, "Thy will be done.- The solo, " I know that my Redeemer Hveth " 
was then sung by Miss Beebe. Dr. Parker took as his text, " As in Adam aU 
died." He said: "The funeral is attended by the whole civilized world It ie 
impossible to recall an instance where deeper sympathy has been displayed bv 
one nation for another. President Garfield's greatness in life was concealed by 
modesty, but is now seen by every one." He sketched General Garfield's caree- 
showing its wonderful vicissitudes. He had handled the world bravely The 
throne which knew him best was that he has left in the hearts of the people As 
the next name to that of the Queen, that of Queen Lucretia Garfield stands in all 
English hearts. Death won a i)oor victory compared with hers. She behaved 
with a heroism which would thrill the world. 

At the suggestion of Dr. Parker, a message expressing admiration and the 
deepest sympathy was sent by cable to Mrs. Garfield, the audience simultaneously 
rising as a sign of assent. The service concluded with a solo by Antoinette Ster- 
ling and the hymn, "Nearer, my God, to Thee." 



280 THE LIFE OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD. 

not confined to the United States. From almost every nation 
on tlie earth such messages and tokens were received. That from 
the Queen of England was particularly tender and sympathetic. 
Iler messages to Mrs. Garfield during the illness of the President 
were frequent and sincere. On hearing of the death she cabled to 
the Bi-itisli Minister to present a floral tribute to the stricken wife 
in her name. It was a very large and exquisite specimen of floral 
art, composed of white roses, smilax, and stephanotis, and was 
one of the most conspicuous off'erings on the bier at the funeral. 

Alfred Tennyson wrote from Haslemere : 

" We learned yesterday that the President was gone. We had 
watched with much admiration his fortitude, and, not without 
hope, the fluctuations of his health for these many days. Now 
we almost seem to have lost a personal friend. He was a good 
man and a noble. Accept from me and my wife and family 
assurances of heartfelt sympathy for Mrs. Garfield, for yourself, 
and for your country.'' 

The general sorrow was participated in not only by all denom- 
inations of Christians, but by all religious sects and bodies in the 
country. As an illustration, Vicar-General Quinn, in a letter to 
the Roman Catholic clergy of New York City, said : 

" In accordance with the recommendation so appropriate at this 
time. His Eminence, the Cardinal Archbishop, desires that the 
Holy Sacrifice be offered in all the churches of the archdiocese at 
the usual hour of High Mass, on Monday, and that the prayer 
'■'■pro quacumque necessitate " be added to the Mass of the day. He 
also directs that the Litany of the Saints and the prayer for the 
public authoi-ities be recited either before or after the service.'' 

Immediately after the assassination, Mr. Cyrus W. Field an- 
nounced that he would endeavor to raise the sum of $250,000, by 
subscription, to be invested in United States bonds for the benefit 
of Mrs. Garfield and her family. The primary object of this fund 
was to defray medical and other expenses in case the President 
lived, but it was considered all the more desirable and necessary 
should his wound prove fatal. One hundred and fifty thousand 
dollars were promptly subscribed, but further response was delayed 
until his death. On this the response became universal, and all 



THE LIFE OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD. 261 

classes showed an eager desire to contribute. Tiie sum raised 
was over $300,000. 

Another fund, for a Garfield monument at Cleveland, was 
begun by subscriptions in Cleveland, Ohio, and met with an 
immediate popular response, 

September 27th was marked by a quiet resumption of duty 
by the people of the nation. But Garfield was henceforward 
a hallowed name in the hearts of his countrymen, and his image 
stands forever in the niche of the Temple of Fame, by the side 
of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. 

AFTER THE BURIAL. 
By OuvEB Wendeix Holmes in The Boston Globe. 
I. 

Fallen with autumn's falling leaf, 

Ere j-et his summer's noon was past, 
Our friend, our guide, our trusted chief— 

What words can match a woe so vast ; 

And whose the chartered claim to speak 

The sacred grief where all have part, 
When sorrow saddens every cheek 

And broods in every aching heart ? 

Yet Nature prompts the burning phrase 
That thrills the hushed and shrouded hall, 

The loud lament, the sorrowing praise. 
The silent tear that love lets fall. 

In loftiest verse, in lowliest rhyme, 
Shall strive unblamed the minstrel choir— 

The singers of the newborn time 
And trembling age with outworn lyre. 

No room for pride, no place for blame— 

We fling out blossoms on the grave. 
Pale-scentless— faded-all we claim, 

This only— what we had we gave. 

Ah, could the grief of all who mourn 

Blend in one voice its bitter cry. 
The wail to Heaven's high arches borne 

Would echo through the caverned sky. 



262 THE LIFE OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD. 

n. 

Oh happiest land whose peaceful choice 
Fills with a breath its empty throne I 

God, speaking through thy people's voice, 
Has made that voice for once His own. 

No angry passion shakes the State 
Whose weary servant seeks for rest— 

And who could fear that scowling hate 
Would strike at that unguarded breast ? 

He stands ; unconscious of his doom, 
In manly strength, erect, serene, — 

Around him summer spreads her bloom- 
He falls,- what horror clothes the scene I 

How swift the sudden flash of woe 
Where all was bright as childhood's dream. 

As if from Heaven's ethereal bow 
Had leaped the lightning's arrowy gleam. 

Blot the foul deed from history's page, — 
Let not the all-betraying sun 

Blush for the day that stains an age 
When murder's blackest wreath was won. 

III. 

Pale on his couch the suflFerer lies. 
The weary battle-ground of pain ; 

Love tends his pillow, science tries 
Her every art, alas ! in vain. 

The strife endures how long ! how long I 
Life, death, seem balanced in the scale, 

While round his bed a viewless throng 
Awaits each morrow's changing tale. 

In realms the desert ocean parts 
What myriads watch with tear-filled eyes, 

His pulse-beats echoing in their hearts, 
His breathings counted with their sighs I 

Slowly the stores of life are spent, 
Yet hope still battles with despair,— 

Will heaven not yield when knees are bent? 
Answer, O Thou that hearest prayer I 

But silent is the brazen sky,— 
On sweeps the meteor's threatening train,- 

Unswerving Nature's mute reply. 
Bound in her adamantine chain. 



THE LIFE OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD. 263 

Not ours the verdict to decide 
Wliom death shall claim or skill shall save ; 

The hero's life though heaven denied 
It gave our land a martyr's grave. 

Nor count the teaching vainly sent 
How human hearts their griefs may share, | 

The lesson woman's love has lent 
What hope may do, what faith can bear I 

Farewell 1 the leaf-strown earth enfolds 

Our stay, our pride, our hopes, our fears, 
And autumn's golden sun beholds 

A nation bowed, a world in tears. 



THE GARFIELD MONTOIENT. 

The Garfield Monument Fund Committee at Cleveland issued 

the followino^ : 

To the People of the United States: 

The movement to secure funds for the erection of a monument 
over the grave of James A. Garfield is being responded to from 
all sections of the country — East, West, South and North. In 
order to make it popular and successful it is desirable and will 
be necessary for the citizens of the different States to immediately 
organize. The committee hereby request all national banks, 
private bankers, savings banks, newspapers and postmasters to 
call attention to the movement by posting notices and otherwise, 
and to receive contributions and to remit the same to the Second 
National Bank of Cleveland, Ohio, which has been designated as 
treasurer of the fund; also to send the names and post office ad- 
dress of all contributors. These names will all be recorded in 
books that will be preserved in the monument. All contribu- 
tions will be receipted for by the Second National Bank, 

J. H. Wade, Joseph Pekkins, 

H. B. Payne, J. H. Rhodes. 



APPENDIX 



GARFIELD'S CHICAGO CONVENTION SPEECH. 
(New York Times, June lOt/i.) 

General Garfield's speech nominating Sherman at Chicago last 
Saturday evening was not telegraphed. It is a fair specimen 
of his eloquence : 

** Mr. President : I have witnessed the extraordinary scenes of 
this convention with deep solicitude. No emotion touches my 
heart more quickly than a sentiment in honor of a great and noble 
character, but as I sat on these seats and witnessed these demon- 
strations, it seemed to me you were a human ocean in a tempest. 

" I have seen the sea lashed into fury and tossed into spray, 
and its grandeur moves the soul of the dullest man, but I re- 
member that it is not the billows but the calm level of the sea 
from which all heights and depths are measured. When the 
storm has passed and the hour of calm settles on the ocean, 
when the sunlight bathes its smooth surface, then the astronomer 
and surveyor takes the level from which he measures all terres- 
trial heights and depths. 

" Gentlemen of the convention, your present temper may not 
mark the healthful pulse of our people. When our enthusiasm 
has passed, when the emotions of this hour have subsided, we 
shall find that calm level of public opinion below the storm from 
which the thoughts of a mighty people are to be measured, and 
by which their final action will be determined. Not here in 
this brilliant circle, where 15,000 men and women are assem- 
bled, is the destiny of the Republican Party to be decreed. 
Not here, where I see the enthusiastic faces of seven hundred 
and fifty-six delegates, waiting to cast their votes into the urn 
and determine the choice of the Republic, but by four million 
Republican firesides, where the thoughtful voters, with their 
wives and children about them ; with the calm thoughts in- 



APPENDIX. 265 



spired by love of home and love of country ; with the history 
of the past, the hopes of the future and the knowledge of the 
great men who have adorned and blessed our nation in days 
gone by — there God prepares the verdict that shall determine 
the wisdom of our work to-night. Not in Chicago, in the heats 
of June, but in the sober quiet that will come to them between 
now and November, in the silence of deliberate judgment, will 
this great question be settled. Let us aid them to-night. 

** But now, gentlemen of the convention, what do we want ? 
[A voice, * Garfield !' followed by applause]. Bear with me a 
moment, hear me for this cause, and for a moment, ' be silent, 
that you may hear.' Twenty-five years ago this republic was 
wearing a triple chain of bondage. Long familiarity wdth traffic 
in the bodies and souls of men had paralyzed the consciences of 
a majority of our people. The baleful doctrine of State sove- 
reignty had shackled and weakened the noblest and most bene- 
ficent powers of the National Government, and the grasping 
power of slavery was seizing the virgin Territories of the West 
and dragging them into the den of eternal bondage. At that 
crisis the Republican Party was born ; it drew its first inspira- 
tion from that fire of liberty which God has lighted in every hu- 
man heart, and which all the powers of ignorance and tyranny 
can never wholly extinguish. The Republican Party came to 
deliver and save the republic. It entered the arena where the 
beleaguered and assailed Territories were struggling for freedom, 
and drew around them a sacred circle of liberty, which the 
demon of slavery has never dared to cross. It made them free 
forever. Strenglhened by its victory on the frontier, the young 
party, under the leadership of that great man who, on this 
spot, twenty years ago, was made its leader, entered the national 
capital, and assumed the high duties of the Government. The 
light which shone from its banner dispelled the darkness in 
which slavery had enshrouded the capital, melted the shackles 
of every slave, and threw its rays into the darkest corner of 
every slave-pen within the shadow of the Capitol. Our great 
national industries, by an unprotected policy, were themselves 
prostrated, and the streams of revenue flowed in such feeble 
currents that the Treasury itself was well-nigh empty. The 
money of the people was the wretched notes of two thousand 
uncontrolled and irresponsible State banking corporations, which 
were filling the country with a circulation that poisoned rather 
than sustained the life of business. 

** The Republican Party changed all this. It abolished the 
Babel of confusion and gave the country a currency as national 



266 APPENDIX. 

as its flag and based it upon the sacred faith of the people. It 
threw its protecting arm around our great industries, and they 
stood erect, as with new life. It filled with the spirit of true 
nationality all the great functions of the Government ; it con- 
fronted a rebellion of unexampled magnitude, with slavery be- 
hind it, and, under God, fought the final battle of liberty until 
the victory was won. Then, after the storms of battle, were 
heard the sweet, calm words of peace spoken by the conquering 
nation, and saying to the conquered foe that lay prostrate at its 
feet : ' This is* our only revenge, that you join us in lifting into 
the serene firmament of the Constitution, to shine like stars for- 
ever and ever, the immortal principles of truth and justice that 
all men, white or black, shall be free and stand equal before 
the law.' Then came the questions of reconstruction, the public 
debt, and the public faith. 

** The Republican Party has finished its twenty-five years of 
glory and success, and is here to-night to ask you to launch it 
on another lustrum of glory and victory. How shall you do it ? 
Not by assailing any Republican. [Cheers.] The battle this 
year is our Thermopylaj. We stand on the narrow isthmus, an I 
the little Spartan band must meet all the Greeks whom Xerxes 
can bring against them, and then the stars in their courses will 
fight for us. [Applause.] To win the victory we want the 
vote of every Grant Republican, and of every Blaine man, and 
of every anti-Blaine man. We are here to take calm counsel 
together, and tx> inquire what we shall do. We want a man 
whose life and opinions embody all the achievements of which I 
have spoken. 

" I am happy to present to you and to name for your consid- 
eration a man who was the comrade, the associate, and the 
friend of nearly all those persons whose faces look down upon us 
in this building to-night ; a man who began his career in the 
politics of this country twenty-five years ago ; whose first ser- 
vice was done in the days of peril on the plains of Kansas, when 
the first red drop of that blood-shower began to fall, which in- 
creased into the deluge of gore in the Rebellion. He stood by 
young Kansas then and returned to his seat in the national 
legislature. Through all the subsequent years his pathway has 
been marked by the labors which he had performed in every de- 
partment of legislation. If you ask me for his monument, I point 
to twenty-five years of the National Statutes. There is not one 
great, one beneficent statute on your books within that time 
that has been placed there without his intelligent and powerful 
aid. He was one of the men who formulated the laws that 



APPENDIX. 267 

raised our great armies and navies and carried us through the 
war. His hand was in the workmanship of the statutes which 
brought back the unity and married calm of these States. Elis 
hand was in all that great legislation which created the great 
wark currency that carried us through, and in the still greater 
work that redeemed the promise of the Government and made 
it good. [Applause. ] 

'• At last he passed from the halls of legislation into a high 
executive office, and there he displayed that experience, intelli- 
gence, firmness, and power of equipoise which throngs a stormy 
period of two and a half years, with half the public press howl- 
ing and crying ' Crucify him,' carried him through unswerved 
by a single hair from the line of duty. He has improved the 
resources of the Government and the great business interests of 
the country, and has carried us through in the execution of that 
law without a jar, in spite of the false prophets and Cassandras 
of half the continent. [Applause.] He has shown himself 
able to meet in the calmness of statesmanship all the great 
emergencies of government. For twenty-five years he has trod 
that perilous height of public duty, and against all the shafts 
of malice he has borne his crest unharmed, and the blaze of that 
fierce light which has been upon him has found no flaw in his 
honor, no stain on his shield. I do not present him as a better 
Republican or a better man than thousands of others whom wc 
honor and revere ; but I present him for your deliberate consid- 
eration. 1 nominate John Sherman, of Ohio." 



GARFIELD'S INFORMAL ACCEPTANCE. 

Chicago, June 7. — About midnight the committee appointed 
to wait on Garfield and Arthur, and inform them of their nomina- 
tion, found them at the Grand Pacific Hotel, and Senator Hoar, 
as chairman made an appropriate speech. Garfield responded : 

" Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen : I assure you that the infor- 
mation you have officially given me brings the sense of very 
grave responsibility, and especially so in view of the fact that 
I was a member of your body, a fact that could not have exist- 
ed with propriety had I had the slightest expectation that my 
name would be connected with the nomination for the office. 

'-' I have felt, with you, great solicitude concerning the situa- 
tion of our party during the struggle ; but believeing that you 
are correct in assuring me that substantial unity has been 
reached in the conclusion, it gives me a gratification far greater 
than any personal pleasure your announcement can bring. 



2G8 APPENDIX. 

" I accci)t the trust comitted to my hands, 

" As to the work of our party aud as to the character of the 
campaign to be entered upon, I will take an early occasion to 
reply more fully than I can properly do to-night. 

'' I thank you for the assurance of confidence and esteem you 
liave presented to me, and hope we shall see our future as prom- 
ising as are the indications to-niglit." 



GARFIELD IN THE LIGHT OF PHRENOLOGY. 

{From the New York Tr'ibum of August \sl.) 
The August number of The Phrenological Journal contains a 
sketch of General Garfield which begins with the following 
analysis of his mental characteristics, based upon an examina- 
tion from the phrenologist's point of view. As many persons 
attribute no little value to such phrenological statements, this 
analysis will undoubtedly be read with interest : 

" James A. Garfield is a man of very strong physical consti- 
tution, with broad shoulders, deep chest, and a good nutritive 
system, which serve to sustain with ample vigor his uncom- 
monly large brain ; standing fully six feet high, and weighing 
220 pounds. The head, which is twenty-four inches in circum- 
ference, seems to be very long from front to rear, and then the 
length seems extreme from the centre of the ear to the root of 
the nose ; it is also long from the opening of the ear backward. 
The whole back-head is large, and the social group amply indi- 
cated, but the reader will observe the extreme length anterior 
to the opening of the ears, especially across the lower part of the 
forehead, in which are located the organs of the perceptive in- 
tellect, those which gather and retain knowledge, and bring a 
man into quick sympathy with the external world, and also 
with the world of facts as developed in science and literature. 

** Perhaps there are not two men in a hundred thousand who 
are intelligent and educated, who will see as much and take into 
account so many of the principles involved in what he sees as the 
subject before us. Nothing escapes his attention ; he remem- 
bers things in their elements, their qualities, and peculiarities, 
such as form, size, and color. He would make an excellent 
judge of the size of articles, and also of their weight, by simple 
observation. He has a talent for natural science, especially 



APPENDIX. 260 

chemisty and natural philosophy. His memory, indicated by 
the fulness in the middle of the forehead, is enormously de- 
veloped, aiding him in retaining vividly all the impressions that 
are worth recalling. 

" The superior portion of the forehead is developed more 
prominently in the analogical than in the logical. His chief 
intellectual force is in the power to elucidate and make sub- 
jects clear ; hence he is able to teach to others whatever he 
knows himself. 

"He has the talent for reading character ; hence he addresses 
himself to each individual according to his peculiar characteris- 
tics, and reaches results in the readiest and best way. His 
language is ratlier largely indicated ; he would be known more 
for specific compactness than for an ornate and elaborate style, 
because he goes as directly as possible from the premises to the 
conclusion, and never seems to forget the point at issue. 

** The side-head is well developed in the region of Order, 
Constructiveness, sense of the beautiful and of the grand. It is 
also strongly marked in the region of Combativeness and 
Destructiveness, which give force and zealous earnestness in the 
prosecution of that which he attempts to do. He is able to 
compel himself to be thorough, and to hold his mind and his 
efforts in the direction required until he has made himself 
master of the subject. Industry is one of his strong traits. 

He is firm, positive, determined, and the middle of the top- 
head indicates strong religious tendency. We seldom see so 
large Veneration ; he is devout, respectful toward whatever he 
thinks sacred, whether it relates to religion or to subordinate 
topics ; he would reverence ancient places made memorable in 
story and song ; he is respectful to the aged, polite to his 
equals, and especially generous and friendly toward those who 
are his inferiors in age or culture. Thus, young men and even 
children have ready access to him by his invitation and permit 
sion. His strong social affection makes his face and his voice 
a standing invitation toward confidence, and he has great famil- 
iarity in his treatment of the young. 

His method of studying subjects is instinctive ; he consid- 
ers all the facts, every condition, that will be brought into ques- 
tion, and combining these by means of his logical force, his 
conclusions seem clear, are vigorously stated and influential. 
He has a strong physiognomy ; that broad and high cheek-bone 
indicates vital power ; that strong nose indicates determina- 
tion, courage and positiveness ; the fulness of the lips shows 
warmth of affection and of sympathy. 



270 APPENDIX. 

" There are few men who are as well adapted to comprehend 
the length and depth and details of business, and hold their 
knowledge where it will be ready for use when it is required ; 
hence, as a lawyer or statesman, he should be able to impart to 
people his knowledge effectively and exhaustively whenever re- 
quired. He is naturally qualified to be master of turbulent men, 
and to meet force by force, and to stand his ground in the 
midst of hardships, difficulties and opposition." 



PRESIDENT ARTHUR'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 

{From the New York Times^ September 33<Z., 1881.) 

There was a quiet and impressive scene in the Capitol at 
noon, September 23, when President Arthur again took the oath 
of office and delivered a short inaugural address. The Presi- 
dent had arisen at 7 o'clock in the morning, and after breakfast 
had received many callers. Among these were all the members 
of the Garfield Cabinet and several senators and representatives. 
The house in which the President is staying is near the Capitol 
and directly south of it. Only one street and the Capitol grounds 
lie between the dead chief magistrate and his living successor. 
The arrangements for the second taking of the oath had been 
very quietly made, and Sergeant-at-Arms Bright, of the Senate, 
had been directed to put in order the Vice-President's room, 
which is just in the rear of the Senate Chamber. Members of 
the Cabinet, senators, members of the House of Representatives, 
and a few other prominent persons had been invited to attend. 
A few minutes before 12 o'clock the President left Senator Jones's 
house, accompanied by ex-President Grant, Senator Jones, and 
several members of the Cabinet, and was taken in a carriage to 
the basement entrance of the Senate wing of the Capitol on the 
east side. The corridors leading to the foot of the private stair- 
case reserved for the use of Senators were deserted, having been 
cleared of all persons who had not been invited to witness the 
the ceremony. The President and his companions proceeded to 
the Vice-President's room, and in a few minutes they were fol- 
lowed by others who had been invited. First came Secretary 
Windom and Secretary Lincoln and several members of the 
House. Secretary Blaine and Gen. Sherman in full uniform 
were then admitted. The next to come was ex-President Hayes, 
who was followed at 12:10 o'clock by Chief-Justice Waite, in his 
judicial robes, and Associate Justices Harlan and Matthews. 
The Clerk of the Supreme Court brought in a small Bible, which 



APPENDIX. 271 

he placed on a table in the centre of the room. Those who were 
present were standing in little groups silently awaiting the cere- 
mony. 

Very soon after his arrival, Chief-Justice Waite advanced to 
the side of the President and the spectators formed in a circle 
around the table near which the President stood. The Chief- 
Justice raised the Bible froui the table, opened it, and passed it 
to the President, who placed his right hand upon the printed 
page. The Chief-Justice then slowly administered the oath, 
with his eyes upon the face of the President, who kissed the 
book and responded, " I will, so help me God." Near the Presi- 
dent stood ex-President Grant, looking down, with his hands 
clasped behind him. At one side were Secretary Blaine and 
Justice Harlan, Attorney-General MacVeagh, and Secretary Lin- 
coln. Facing the President, on his right, was ex-President 
Hayes, and further away stood Senator John Sherman, with 
bowed head. On the other side were Senators Edmunds, Hale, 
Blair, Dawes, and Anthony, and Representatives Amos Town- 
send, McCook, Errett, Hiscock, and Thomas, ex-Senator Hamlin, 
Speaker Randall, and others Speaker Sharpe and Col. George 
Bliss, of New York, were also present. 

As soon as the oath had been administered the Chief-Justice 
retired from the table and took a place in the circle of spectators. 
The President then drew from the inner pocket of his coat a roll 
of manuscript and read the following address : 

" For the fourth time in the history of the Republic its chief 
magistrate has been removed by death. All hearts are filled with 
grief and horror at the hideous crime which has darkened our 
land, and the memory of the murdered President, his protracted 
sufferings, his unyielding fortitude, the example and achieve- 
ments of his life and the pathos of his death will forever illumine 
the pages of our history. For the fourth time the officer 
elected by the people and ordained by the Constitution to fill a 
vacancy so created is called to assume the Executive chair. The 
wisdom of our fathers, foreseeing even the most dire possibilities, 
made sure that the Government should never be imperiled be- 
cause of the uncertainty of human life. Men may die, but the 
fabric of our free institutions remains unshaken. No higher or 
more assuring proof could exist of the strength and permanence 
of popular government than the fact that, though the chosen of 
the people be struck do\vn, his constitutional successor is peace- 
fully installed without shock or strain, except the sorrow which 
mourns the bereavement. All the noble aspirations of my 
lamented predecessor which found expression in his life, the 



272 APPEI^DIX. 

measure devised and suggested during his brief administration 
to correct abuses and enforce economy, to advance prosperity and 
promote the general welfare, to insure domestic security and 
maintain friendly and honorable relations with the nations of the 
earth, will be garnered in the hearts of the people, and it will be 
my earnest endeavor to profit and to see that the nation shall 
profit by his example and experience. Prosperity blesses our 
country ; our fiscal policy as fixed by law is well grounded and 
generally approved ; no threatening issue mars our foreign inter- 
course, and the wisdom, integrity, and thrift of our people may 
be trusted to continue undisturbed the present assured career of 
peace, tranquillity, and welfare. The gloom and anxiety which 
have enshrouded the country must make repose especially wel- 
come now. No demand for speedy legislation has been heard ; 
no adequate occasion is apparent for an unusual session of Con- 
gress. The Constitution defines the functions and powers of the 
Executive as clearly as those of either of the other two departments 
of the Government, and he must answer for the just exercise of the 
discretion it permits and the performance of the duties it imposes. 
Summoned to these high duties and resj)onsibilities, and pro- 
foundly conscious of their magnitude and gravity, I assume the 
trust imposed by the Constitution, relying for aid on Divine 
guidance and the virtue, patriotism, and intelligence of the 
American people.'' 

At times his voice trembled, but his manner was dignified and 
impressive, and when he referred to the Administration of his 
predecessor and his intention to profit by his example, he raised 
his eyes from the manuscript and spoke directly to his hearers. 
While he was reading many eyes were moistened with tears. 



PRESIDENT ARTHUR'S FIRST PROCLAMATION. 

September 22d, 1881. 
By the Preddent of the United States of America : 
A Proclamation. 

Whereas, in His inscrutable wisdom, it has pleased God to 
remove from us the illustrious head of the nation, James A. Gar- 
field, late President of the United States ; and 

Whereas, it is fitting that the deep grief which fills all hearts 
should manifest itself with one accord toward the throne of 
Infinite Grace, and that we should bow before the Almighty and 



APPENDIX. 273 

seek from Him that consolation in our affliction and that sancti- 
fication of our loss which He is able and willing to vouchsafe ; 

Now, therefore, in obedience to sacred duty, and in accordance 
with the desire of the people, I, Chester A. Arthur, President of 
the United States of America, do hereby appoint Monday next, 
the 26th day of September, on which day the remains of our 
honored and beloved dead will be consigned to their last resting- 
place on earth, to be observed throughout the United States as a 
day of humiliation and mourning ; and I earnestly recommend 
all the people to assemble on that day in their respective places 
of divine worship, there to render alike their tribute of sorrowful 
submission to the will of Almighty God and of reverence and 
love for the memory and character of our late chief magistrate. 

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused 
the seal of the United States to be affixed. 

Done at the city of Washington the 32d day of September, in 
the year of our Lord 1881, and of the independence of the United 
States the one hundred and sixth. Chester A. Arthur. 

By the President : 

[Seal.] James G. Blaine, Secretary of State. 



HOW MOTHER GARFIELD BORE HER AFFLICTIOK 

{From the New TorTc Times.) 
Cleveland, September 23. — The mother of the late President 
is by nature far from demonstrative, and the many distorted 
utterances of hers which appeared in the newspapers during the 
campaign, and especially since the assassination, do her great 
injustice. That she should have a mother's pride in her son 
would be natural, but of his achievements she is not free to speak. 
She loves dearly to converse about him, even since the great 
calamity, but always prefers to listen. A correspondent called 
at the house this afternoon. Hearing of his presence, she entered 
the room as soon as she was at liberty, and made timid inquiry 
about the funeral preparations. She listened eagerly to every- 
thing that was said, and the effort did not seem to tire her. 
Occasionally a mention of some little act of delicate courtesy on 
the part of the people would touch her heart, and a tear would 
glisten in her eye, and reveal the feelings with which her mother's 
heart is rent. She will sit quietly by the window and read the 
paper for an hour at a time. Then, unable longer to choke down 



274 



APPENDIX. 




JUXVO. JiiiJitiJ:!. 



Mother of President James A. Garfield. 



the swelling sorrow, as some incident touches her heart, she will 
lay aside the paper and sit alone in silence, her thoughts busied 
with the dead past. She sits there uncomplaining, meek, patient, 
living over the past and seeking to comprehend the meaning of 
her own affliction. Then the members of the family address her 
and seek to divert her mind, and, with a weary smile that is 
more eloquent than the tears she seeks to restrain, she turns and 
tries to hide from others the suffering which she knows must be 
contagious. 



